DADDY OF THE GAMES
IT IS a precious accomplishment to win one Olympic gold but it is something from another realm altogether to back it up with another at the next Games.
Adam Peaty joined the exclusive band of British Olympians who have successfully defended their title yesterday but also established a new club – with a current membership of one – as the first swimmer from these shores to do so.
To achieve it with the unprecedented five-year gap between Rio and Tokyo – another 12 months to stay at the top in a young man’s game – only adds to the scale of his achievement.
No wonder, as he straddled the lane rope in the Tokyo Aquatics Centre post-race, the relentless Peaty stopped the clocks and allowed himself a few reflective seconds to savour the moment.
“Being Olympic champion once is very hard; being Olympic champion five years later is extremely, extremely difficult,” said Peaty.
“When I got on that lane rope it was for all those moments when I didn’t want to do it. There was a lot of relief but also enjoyment – just taking in every single part of that moment and enjoying it because you never get that chance as an athlete.
“You’re always chasing that next high, that next performance, that next victory, but now thankfully now I can just stay in the present, breathe in and just enjoy it.”
When Peaty sets a goal he meets it. It is seven years since he lost any 100m breaststroke race, a winning run which stretches all the way back
to gold at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
For individual sporting ascendancy, we are inching towards Ed Moses and his 10-year unbeaten stretch in the 400m hurdles.
Just think for a second of the level of application needed to maintain his level of dominance. Off days, for him, are simply not allowed to exist.
The early mornings, the self-denial, the training grind, the sheer bloody-minded commitment are what enable him to keep on pushing the boundaries.
He knows when he looks in the mirror that he gets out of his sport what he gets in. And what he gets out is win after win after win. It is not as if Peaty is beating mugs, either.
In yesterday’s Tokyo final he had the second, third and fourth fastest swimmers in history for company.
It is not as if his discipline is some sort of quirky Olympic cul-de-sac. The finalists represented six different countries.
It is just Peaty bestrides his event like a colossus. He now possesses the 16 quickest times ever swum over the distance.
Holland’s Arno Kamminga celebrated his silver medal afterwards as if he had won the race. Which in a sense he had. The other race, without Peaty in it. The Staffordshire terrier is competing in a dimension of his own. “I know when it really comes down to it that if I see someone in my peripheral vision who is level, I can have them. That is one of my biggest assets as a racer,” said Peaty afterwards.
At 26, Peaty is a one-man outboard motor who is rewriting history with every stroke and pulling his event along with him.
The time he clocked in the final – No.5 in the all-time rankings – was six seconds quicker than Duncan Goodhew when he won the 1980 gold.
Goodhew was a great British swimmer; Peaty has gone beyond that to become a great British Olympian.