“Well, yes, I was gonna tell you in about 10 minutes but you’ve got there before me.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They’d just set out on a walk at Peaty’s behest. Marshall isn’t known for messing about and having nailed the reason for her charge’s concerned demeanour, she was already working out a plan in her own mind: in no way was the happy news going to spoil the other happy news they’d been working so hard on for so long: his prospects at Tokyo 2020.<\/p>\n

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Adam Peaty and girlfriend Eirianedd Munro, who will become parents in August – Photo Courtesy: Instagram<\/p><\/div>\n
The message behind the\u00a0Black Lives Matter<\/strong> Movement matters to Peaty. Eiri is of Nigerian descent, their baby boy will have white British and black Nigerian grandparents. Peaty told BBC breakfast television today:<\/p>\n
“My son will be mixed race. I want him to be judged on his achievements, not his skin colour. Swimming is a very white-based sport because culturally we don’t really reach out to those communities to get them involved. I want to start to create that positive environment for people where no matter what race, what age or background they can be part of it.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It was that painting that Caroline Peaty<\/strong>, the swimmer’s mother, had wanted to paint when she tweeted “All Lives Matter”, no slight on BLM intended, just \u00a0a wish for equality for all.<\/p>\n
Peaty understands the BLM campaign and asks in the context of the sport in which he excels: “How many black swimmers can you think of?”<\/p>\n
Good question, one the media in Britain consistently get wrong, despite the extremely low numbers to choose from. Two mainstream outlets in the past two weeks have described Alice Dearing<\/strong><\/a>, one of Britain’s open water team and currently the only funded black swimmer in the elite program, as a hopeful aiming to become the first black swimmer to race at the Olympic Games for Britain.<\/p>\n
If Dearing makes the cut for Tokyo 2020 in 2021, she would become the third black swimmer, after Kevin Burns<\/strong> (1976) and the late\u00a0Paul Marshall<\/strong> <\/a>(1980, bronze medallist in the 4x100m medley relay before a career serving his country in the RAF), to race for Britain at the Games. Dearing would be the first black woman in the pool for Britain at the Games and the second woman to race for Britain at any senior event after Achieng Ajulu-Bushell<\/strong>, of Kenyan and British heritage.<\/p>\n
Ajulu-Bushell raced for Kenya at the 2008 World Junior Championships in Mexico and the senior 2009 World Championships in Rome before switching to Britain in early 2010, news of that move broken in The Times<\/a> by this author in April 2010.<\/p>\n
That year, she raced at the European Championships as the first black woman to wear Great Britain colours and the Commonwealth Games for England.<\/p>\n
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