{"id":570445,"date":"2023-10-06T05:19:17","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T12:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=570445"},"modified":"2023-10-06T05:19:34","modified_gmt":"2023-10-06T12:19:34","slug":"adam-peaty-on-leaving-the-darkness-behind-as-the-water-beckons-once-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/adam-peaty-on-leaving-the-darkness-behind-as-the-water-beckons-once-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Adam Peaty: Leaving The Darkness Behind As Competitive Waters Beckon Once More"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adam Peaty: Leaving The Darkness Behind As Competitive Waters Beckon Once More<\/h4>\n

Adam Peaty<\/strong> cuts a calm, reflective figure ahead of his return to competition at the World Cup<\/strong>, a far cry from the darkness which enveloped the three-time Olympic champion at the turn of the year.<\/p>\n

Such was the severity of his desolation and loneliness, Peaty considered quitting \u201ca thousand times\u201d.<\/p>\n

But time away from heavy training and competition gave him the space to breathe and to experience life without the boundaries of a strict regime.<\/p>\n

Energised by his glimpse into another life and bolstered by his family, faith and church community, Peaty reflected and re-evaluated his life and priorities.<\/p>\n

He let go of trying to affect things outside his control and instead focused on those who mattered most \u2013 son George, family, friends and Team Peaty.<\/p>\n

Unwilling to live with the pain of regret, the 28-year-old resolved to continue but with an approach far removed from what went before.<\/p>\n

Peaty told Swimming World:<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, I\u2019m not bothered about the medals or the gold.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the first time in my life, I\u2019m bothered about the challenge to myself, to prove to myself that I can come from the lowest point of my career \u2013 even though I had all the golds and all the world records and I know how that felt.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut now I\u2019m just going to come back and give myself the challenge and give myself one huge opportunity to get the best out of myself \u2013 in all areas of my life.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Disruption, Burnout And Filling The Void<\/h3>\n

Upheaval marked Peaty\u2019s 2022.<\/p>\n

He split with former partner Eiri Munro with whom he shares three-year-old son George.<\/p>\n

\"Adam_Peaty_Launch_WhiteBG_0099_v1_RGB\"

Adam Peaty: Photo Courtesy: AARON OKAYAMA, Speedo<\/p><\/div>\n

That followed the first defeat of his career in the 100m breaststroke when he finished fourth at the Commonwealth Games<\/strong> <\/a>in Birmingham although he responded to claim the 50 title.<\/p>\n

That in turn came after a foot injury that saw him withdraw from the World Championships<\/strong><\/a> in Budapest.<\/p>\n

Peaty travelled to Melbourne<\/a> for the World Short-Course Championships<\/strong> in December, coming away with 100m bronze.<\/p>\n

But despite enjoying Christmas, it was around this time that the storm clouds started gathering and Peaty began to spiral.<\/p>\n

He said:<\/p>\n

\u201cMelbourne was Melbourne and short-course is short-course and I still learned from that but not in a healthy manner, I was too self-destructive.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Physically and mentally exhausted, the eight-time world champion turned to alcohol, saying:<\/p>\n

\u201cI was chasing numbness because I was so burnt-out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came very close to stopping but I was just severely, severely unhappy and that was a very dark place because you tend to find other things to fill that void.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A Glimpse Into Another Life<\/h3>\n

In March, Peaty withdrew from the British trials<\/a> for the World Championships<\/strong> in Fukuoka, Japan, and stepped away from the heavy training that has been part of his life since he was a teenager.<\/p>\n

So too had there been the cost of his pioneering achievements since July 2014 when he won his first senior international title at the Commonwealth Games<\/strong> in Glasgow.<\/p>\n

Since then he\u2019d swept all before him at Olympic, world and European levels as he drove his events into places no-one had seriously considered possible.<\/p>\n

But it had all taken its toll.<\/p>\n

Coach Mel Marshall<\/strong> encouraged him to continue going to the pool at Loughborough National Training Centre<\/strong>, to spend time in the water.<\/p>\n

Peaty confronted life past and present head on, distance enabling him to see that body and mind were not aligned in the athlete who a year ago described his drive as \u201cdemonic\u201d<\/a> in its relentlessness and intensity.<\/p>\n

\"Adam

Adam Peaty: Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala\/ Deepbluemedia\/Insidefoto<\/p><\/div>\n

He said:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe training was really stable but it was almost like I was trying to be a person I\u2019d been in the past instead of accepting my life is a little bit different now I\u2019m older \u2013 an older athlete, a father.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith that comes maturity, it comes with benefits but I wasn\u2019t calm in my head.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used to want to win at all costs and we still do \u2013 I think that cost can still be hard work and sacrifice \u2013 they are the two pillars of elite sport, right?<\/p>\n

\u201cBack then it was more – any cost, I want to do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou put so much pressure on yourself every day to turn up and if you don\u2019t get the results then the emotional energy you require to give yourself a positive outcome is just too high.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day it burns you out.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So too did he see how his identity and self-perception had been determined by his achievements in the pool.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think so. Especially from last year \u2013 and before that \u2013 I always used to swim with my identity as an athlete\u2026being the best in the world or whatever.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I didn\u2019t get that, then who would I be? And that does come with its benefits and many flaws but it\u2019s not a healthy way to do a long-term sport at all, we all know that.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There was also the loneliness of the elite athlete\u2019s journey that isolated Peaty, exacerbating and magnifying that darkness.<\/p>\n

He said:<\/p>\n

\u201cI think to have world records and to push the edges of the sport in various ways you\u2019ve got to have something different about you and you\u2019ve got to be thinking different, especially to the extent that we\u2019ve done it in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo for me it\u2019s incredibly lonely in the sense that I know my vision, I know what I want to do and that requires a huge amount of sacrifice but I would say in the literal sense, yes, before I had my break, the way I approached my sport, very different.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t feel lonely anymore, you just have lower days but that\u2019s being human, you\u2019ve got to welcome that challenge and for me, back then it was just incredibly dark.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you deal with that when you\u2019re trying to win a World Championships? Or when you\u2019re trying to win Olympic Games?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Faith, Family And Walking Into The Light<\/h3>\n

On top of his family and friends, partner Holly and the team around him, Peaty was also given support by British Swimming<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

He also credits his faith and the community at the evangelical church he attends every Sunday with playing a fundamental role in his journey back to health.<\/p>\n

On his torso is tattooed a cross and the words \u2018Into The Light\u2019 and Peaty said:<\/p>\n

\"Adam

Adam Peaty at Queen’s Leisure Centre, Derby: Photo Courtesy: CUPRA<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really like using the word like religion: for me it\u2019s just a way of life and you choose how to use that or do it or serve or whatever God asks you to do I guess or whatever you feel.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut at the end of the day I\u2019ll never hide that from anyone \u2013 hence I got the tattoo \u2013 it\u2019s given me more peace but at the same time it has also saved my life in a sense.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He added:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve learned so much from March onwards when I really went – you know what? I\u2019m either going to stop right now or I\u2019m going to fight my way back and give myself the challenge of approaching the sport in a healthy manner but also in a manner that I enjoy it the majority of the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have come on leaps and bounds very, very quickly in terms of my mental wellbeing, also the people I have around me as well.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Welcoming The Challenge Of Qin As The Water Beckons<\/h3>\n

The eight-time world champion will return to the water this weekend for the first time since the Edinburgh International<\/strong> in March at the first stop on the World Cup tour in Berlin, followed by legs in Athens and Budapest.<\/p>\n

Awaiting will be double Olympic silver medallist Arno Kamminga<\/strong>, three-time world champion Nic Fink, Nicolo Martinenghi <\/strong>– double title-holder at the 2022 worlds –\u00a0and Qin Haiyang<\/strong>, who swept the breaststroke events<\/a> in Fukuoka for an historic treble.<\/p>\n

The Chinese swimmer replicated that feat at the World University Games<\/strong><\/a> and again last week at the Asian Games<\/strong><\/a> in Hangzhou, China.<\/p>\n

Qin is the second-fastest man in history behind Peaty over 50 and 100 and has stated his desire to take down the Briton\u2019s world records of 56.88 and 25.95.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s something that Peaty welcomes, saying:<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely. Sport \u2013 especially swimming \u2013 we need to have those personalities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever met him as in said hello so we\u2019ll get down to that, see how that goes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew ever since I broke that world record that people would be sniffing my blood, this is no surprise to me at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m like \u2013 you know what, I\u2019m not about that anymore. I\u2019m just going to let my swimming do the talking and to get the results I want, that may take half a year, right to the Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me to do that I need a constant challenge so I am kind of happy actually that I\u2019m going to have some good people there.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n