3 hours ago
19
Adam Ramsay-Peaty has never been one to hide his emotions. He wears them proudly on his sleeve, next to the striking tattoos of a huge lion and Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea.
After his shock defeat in the 100m breaststroke final at these Commonwealth Games, the 31-year-old was back pouring his heart out on Sunday – and insisting he had a “battle plan” to win gold in Monday’s 50m breaststroke final.
Ramsay-Peaty certainly looked smoother in qualifying third fastest from the semi-finals in 26.82sec. However, he still has a couple of tenths to find on the South African Michael Houlie, who was fastest in 26.61.
The Australian Sam Williamson, who is hoping to add the 50m to his 100m crown, also looked good as he won his semi-final in 26.79. Yet Peaty pronounced himself happy with how he had bounced back from Saturday’s shock loss.
“It felt much better,” he said. “The last 24 hours have been a bit of a whirlwind, but I’m really happy with that. We’re on a great trajectory for tomorrow.
“For me, the best way to ever get anything out of my head is just to write it out. When I write down what’s going wrong, what’s going right, what kind of change? What can’t change? Then I’ve got a battle plan.”
He added: “People forget that I haven’t done this for two years. And even I forget that. So as you go through heats, semis and finals, it’s quite difficult if you’re not used to it. So I think that perspective is a good thing.”
Peaty has stood on the top of the podium 32 times in global championships across his glittering career. Yet he has not won a gold medal since the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. That record was extended on Saturday when he could take only bronze in the 100m breaststroke in 59.65, behind Williamson, who won in 59.3, and the brilliant 18-year-old Filip Nowicki from Jersey.
Afterwards Ramsay-Peaty was strikingly honest about “all the shit I have been through” to get ready for the Commonwealth Games, including the 5.30am starts, missing family gatherings because of training, and also the amount of abuse he and his family has received on social media.
On Sunday he added more context to his struggles, pointing out that he battled with burnout and a broken foot over the past four years, as well as hinting at the much-publicised estrangement with his family.
“There have been a multitude of things at play over the last few years – burnout, breaking my foot, fighting against something that you love. It’s been hard,” he said. “Some of it has been quite painful, particularly from that foot injury onwards.
“Coming back to where I am now and making the decision to go for LA, I think this is going to be the hardest climb I’ve ever faced and the hardest test. It’s really hard to see the summit because it’s so hard. I don’t think anyone understands.”
What was perhaps most striking about that 59.65 was that it was nearly three seconds behind his world record – and slower even than he swam at the British trials in the spring.
after newsletter promotion
“I work a lot harder than a 59.6, really. It’s not a good time – we know that,” he said on Sunday. “When your world record is three seconds away, we’ve got to seriously ask what’s going wrong because that’s not me.
“We need to look at it, interrogate it, look at the data, and ask whether it was an issue with race pace, fitness, or something else. I don’t think it was fitness, but there are a lot of components that make us swim, so we really have to analyse it.”
He added: “I was fitter in April with less training, which doesn’t really make sense, to be honest. I guess that’s the learning point. Maybe I’m on a plan that I don’t fully understand, and maybe it’ll take another two years to find the right way.”
On Saturday, Ramsay-Peaty also took aim at social media and traditional media too, whhich has become fixated with him and his pregnant wife, Holly – the daughter of the celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay – and his estrangement with his mother.
“You don’t know who I am,” he said. “And people who comment, people who see the story because you read a headline, they’ve got to look themselves in the mirror. You can’t hurt me.”
He added: “That hasn’t played a part in the sense of what I’ve experienced, because I’m still happy with that result in some sense, but it has to stop. How many athletes, how many people, have to go through this until the media learn their lesson? You have to learn and do better.”
