Why Alexander the Great inspires Peaty to conquer
Jeremy Wilson hears how swimmer’s interest in ancient history helps fuel drive for success
Adam Peaty’s physique would impress even the most chiselled and sculpted Greek god, so it seems somehow apt to hear him outline a secret passion for ancient history. “I know it might sound a bit stupid but I love history, and one of my favourite eras was the Greek time,” he declares, before pointing to the tattoos on his bulging arms.
“This was done in April. God knows how many hours. It’s the God of Wisdom and War. That’s Achilles, and this is Poseidon’s trident. I’m getting a gladiator in there as well. It’s all based off the Greek gods.”
The words “Courage, Integrity and Belief ” have also been emblazoned, as well as the Olympic rings and the huge lion he had added after winning his gold medal in Rio de Janeiro and which he says signifies the “king of the jungle”.
For Peaty, the imagery all connects in some way to a swimming career so remarkable and so dominant that even Michael Phelps, the 23-time Olympic gold medallist, once admitted to being thankful that he specialised in different events.
“I enjoy reading about Alexander the Great and stuff like that,” Peaty says. “I think you can learn a lot, obviously in terms of resilience and how much conquering he did over a small amount of time. He had his father’s empire, but it’s the way he changed things in warfare with his logistics.
“I get a lot of inspiration to go further than anyone else has done, to be more successful and dominate more than anyone else. You can’t just do what previous
champions have done. You need to change the way you do things. It’s pushing those boundaries.”
If comparing a sporting career in 2019 to a legendary military leader from 336BC might seem just a little tangential, the bottom line is that Peaty has the performances to back up everything he says.
Tomorrow, in Gwangju, he will attempt to become world champion for the sixth time when he begins his campaign for an extraordinary hat-trick of world 50metre and 100metre breaststroke titles.
We meet following a training session this month at the Yokohama International Pool, which will also be the base for Team GB’S swimmers before next year’s Olympic Games, and it is fascinating to watch him training under the tuition of Mel Marshall.
From famously being frightened of water as a young child because his brothers told him that sharks would come through the plughole, it was Marshall who identified Peaty when he was brought by a friend, aged 14, to the City of Derby Swimming Club.
Their partnership now extends for more than a decade and has developed into one of the most successful coach-athlete relationships in sport.
Marshall believes that knowing Peaty and his family from when he “was at the teenage years where he said about three words a year” right through his GCSES to all his phenomenal success has allowed them to forge a unique bond.
Even during an intense training session, it is obvious that Peaty enjoys Marshall’s charismatic personality. “How does it work? I turn up and do what she says,” says Peaty. “It’s very dynamic and we both get out what we put in. She is going against the mould. You don’t see many women coaches in elite sport at all. It doesn’t affect who she is and what she does – if you are good at your job, you are good at your job – but she’s a very good advocate for women in sport.
“She has changed me as a character and tested my character every single day. If you switch off for a split second, someone will take your place. She has set that resilience in me, but also almost told me not to take it too seriously.
“That’s 10 years of being together 48 weeks of the year. It comes down to trust. A lot of athletes don’t have that trust in their coaches, or vice versa. She knows I will be the hardest worker, that’s my dying philosophy.”
Marshall herself swam in five Olympic finals, but regards Peaty as the best swimmer she has seen, including even Phelps. When you consider that Peaty’s world records at 100m and 50m breaststroke are respectively 1.36sec and 0.67sec quicker than Cameron van der Burgh’s previous marks, you can understand the statement. We are talking Bob Beamon-esque margins of improvement.
So, what makes him so good? Marshall specifically highlights a unique but utterly natural style that eliminates any “dead spot” and there is obviously that fierce, almost gladiatorial competitive aura. “I love winning and hate losing: simple as that,” Peaty says.
On the day we talk, he is practising his starts over and over again. One of the most exciting elements of Peaty’s development is that he became the best breaststroker in history while also being one of the worst starters in
the field, and so tackling that provides an obvious focus for further improvement. He also believes that he has added a vital layer of experience.
“I have almost evolved. I’m smarter, I know when to work harder and I have grown into an adult,” he says. “Back in Rio, I was a boy hungry for success. I was so on edge. I’m still that guy, but it’s almost like you have to put the lion in the cage because the emotional effect of bringing out that personality is huge. When I finished that 100m breaststroke final, I was absolutely battered for about four days.
“That doesn’t die, I just know when to cage it and when to release it now. I know how to get that peak performance and when to choose my battles.”
Some of those battles have also come outside of the pool, with Peaty last year accusing swimming’s governing body, Fina, of making it feel like the sport was still stuck in 1970. After seeing swimmers who have served suspensions returning to win world and Olympic medals, Peaty’s views on doping also remain uncompromising.
“We need more athletes to put more pressure on people in charge to get these people out of the sport for good,” says Peaty. “In some countries you can do jail time and get sued. We need to almost pursue that policy of treating it like fraud. Let’s say that person X takes anabolic steroids and wins a gold. He is going to get the medal, maybe a world record and end up with all that money. You then have the guy in second who ended up with pretty much nothing, maybe gone through that depression state almost, where he thinks he’s not good enough. You can’t calculate the impact. It’s fraud.”
Training in Yokohama ahead of the World Championships has inevitably also brought the Olympics into sharper focus after the most difficult period of his career and a first defeat in four years against Van der Burgh at last year’s Commonwealth Games.
“It was probably the hardest time in the sport,” says Peaty. “After the World Championships, you are not racing the best of the best. I know that and my subconscious knows and I can’t fool myself.
“You have to know when to win the races and when to absolutely dominate. I am putting together now those finest performances of my life in the next few years. I need to do that to set the legacy I want to do. How far can I go, and how many people can I inspire along the way? That’s the motivation.”
‘I am putting together now those finest performances of my life over the next few years’