HUNK IN TRUNK

He’s simply a phenomenon. Here’s the tantalising low down on the British swimmer who’s conquered the world

ADAM PEATY reinforced his position as the superstar of British swimming last night when he defended his title as world champion in the 50m breaststroke. It topped off a week when he broke the world record in the same event, having already won gold in the 100m race. As well as being reigning Olympic champion, he hasn’t lost a race for three years. So, how did a lad who used to be afraid of water conquer the world? And how did he get those muscles? GUY ADAMS reports.

Tears at bath-time

A WORKING-CLASS boy made good, Adam is the fourth and youngest child of Lidl caretaker Mark Peaty and his wife Caroline, a nursery manager, who still live in the red- brick semi where he grew up on the outskirts of Uttoxeter, Staffordshire.

As an infant, the future Olympic champ was terrified of water. ‘He was petrified: he didn’t even like having a bath or a shower,’ Caroline recalled. ‘From the time he could stand, Adam would never even sit down in the bath.’

When the time came to teach him to swim, a severe tantrum ensued. ‘His mum took him to the swimming pool, but he would not go in,’ said his grandmother Mavis Williams, a former biscuit factory worker. ‘Then, around one week later, a friend took him along. I don’t know what happened, but after that, he started going.’

At 14, Adam had sufficient talent to be asked to train daily at the City Of Derby Swimming Club. ‘It was really hard going,’ Caroline recalled. ‘I’d get up at 4am, drive him 40 minutes to Derby, wait two hours while he was training, or go to Tesco, then drive him back and do a full day’s work. Then we’d do it again in the evening.’

The local community organised barbecues to help with the cost of travel to competitions.

Making waves

IN 2012, Adam was one of 264 talented young swimmers to receive a £1,000 grant from Lloyds Bank designed to help create ‘future Olympians’, but he was still some way short of being selected for that summer’s Games in London.

One person who did make the cut, however, was his friend Craig Benson. ‘I was really jealous,’ Peaty has recalled. ‘He was the same age and he was at a home Olympics, something I would never get a chance to do again. It was a “What am I doing with my life” moment.’

The 17-year-old decided to sacrifice his vibrant social life to devote himself fully to swimming.

‘From then, I watched all the Olympics and said to myself I would make the next one. That was when I stopped getting drunk, messing about with my mates and started being serious about this.’

In November 2013, the work began to pay off: Adam won a place on British Swimming’s elite development squad. ‘Once you win a medal, all those nights you didn’t have out, or beers you didn’t drink, will be worth it,’ he said.

Big breakthrough

ADAM began to make international waves in 2014, when he won European and Commonwealth titles in the 100m breaststroke. It was the start of an extraordinary run that has seen him unbeaten for three years. By the 2015 World Championships, he was also winning gold at 50m, setting a new record in process.

Success at the 2016 Olympics, which he prepared for by spending ‘two days with Harry, a man from the SAS, going up and down hills’ made him a household name.

‘You wouldn’t believe how many people have asked if I’m going to retire now,’ he told an interviewer. ‘I’m like: “What are you on about?” This is just the start. This is what I wanted. Now for the legacy.’

On current form, peerless Peaty has a 1.3 second advantage at 100m over anyone else in swimming, which, in the world of two-lap racing, equates to a virtual ocean. To keep focused, he’s now racing the stopwatch, aiming in the next year to complete ‘Project 56’ to get the 100m record below the 57-second barrier.

Maximum dedication

TOP swimmers lead a monastic existence. Adam’s day begins at 4.30am, when his alarm clock goes off, summoning him to the pool at Loughborough University.

‘The key is to get up as soon as you wake or that snooze button becomes addictive,’ he says. ‘If you press it once, there is no going back. Get out of bed and get some breakfast down as quickly as possible.’

One in the water, Peaty typically swims around 5,000m in two hours, under the watchful eye of coach Mel Marshall.

But he isn’t just ploughing up and down the fast lane. Some days, he does 50m ‘sprints’ while dragging a small parachute under the water.

On other days, he must do continual 50 or 100m bursts, with short rests, to achieve ‘heart-rate max’, which ‘means my body cannot physically work any harder to get the blood pumping round my system’. ‘After that, you cannot physically move,’ he says. ‘By the end of the week, you are practically in your coffin.’ During a typical week, he completes ten two-hour pool sessions, taking only Saturdays off, to allow his body to recover. Little wonder that he’s always tucked up in bed by 9pm.

Muscle man

PEATY’S reputation as a monster in the gym, which he visits a further five times a week, was enhanced by an extraordinary BBC video in which he flexes his biceps and grins ‘don’t try these until you’ve got guns [muscles] like these’.

He then demonstrates a series of ‘Superman’ press-ups, where he propels his entire body (including his feet) a foot in the air, before clapping at the peak of the bounce. The film also shows him doing press-ups with a fitness trainer resting on his back.

Peaty has been recorded doing explosive pull-ups, lifting his body into mid-air above a metal bar, and clapping between each repetition. It’s all part of an intensive regime based on the theory that a swimmer’s physique is built in the gym, not the pool.

Feeding the beast

DURING intense winter training, he ploughs through between 6,000 and 8,000 calories daily, three times more than an average man, drinking five litres of water

in the process. In a recent interview with Men’s health, he outlined his daily meal plan. A first, pre-training breakfast consists of granola with soya milk. A second breakfast, after leaving the pool, is Greek yoghurt and raisins. Lunch might be a high-protein tuna steak with avocado, while a dinner of salmon, new potatoes and green veg is wolfed down before 7pm. for snacks, he eats peanut butter spread over banana during training, protein bars and shakes in the afternoon, plus wholemeal toast before bed. When Peaty, who is 6ft 3in, falls off this wagon, the effects are serious.

At rio, he raced at a svelte 87kg (13st 5lb). Later, he went on holiday to California with his then-girlfriend. ‘I came back about 96kg, so I was very heavy. that was all the junk food.’

The spoils

DAVID WILkIe, 1976 British Olympic gold medallist in Montreal, values Peaty’s earning potential at around £1 million a year. ‘ the world is a smaller place now, with social media. I’d say the potential for sponsorship deals is ten times higher than in my day, which was around £100,000 a year.’

Peaty has endorsed everything from Omega watches to DfS sofas and, since the Olympics, spent some of the proceeds on a swanky Mercedes sports car, along with his first home.

Not bad for a boy of 22, though he’s seeking someone to share his glamorous existence, having separated from student Anna Zair, who cheered him on in rio.