Olympic champion Adam Peaty vows go faster and better his 100m breaststroke gold standard
Olympic champion Adam Peaty has vowed to continue his gold rush after winning Great Britain’s first medal of the Rio Games with a world record 100m breaststroke swim in the early hours of Monday morning.
The 21-year-old became the first British man to win Olympic swimming gold since Adrian Moorhouse in the same event at the Seoul Olympics in 1988, breaking his own world record with a time of 57.13 seconds – 1.5 seconds clear of his nearest rival.
Peaty is set to compete in Friday’s 4x100m medley relay but has set his sights on improving his searing pace when he returns to work at Repton School and Loughborough University with City of Derby coach Mel Marshall after Rio.
“I’m not going to settle for this. I’m going to push forwards,” said Peaty, who also has double Olympic champion and four-time medallist Rebecca Adlington as a mentor.
“I’m sure every gold medallist says that, but me and Mel operate differently, always pursuing excellence and self-improvement.
“It’s going to be good to go back to Repton, go back to Loughborough and pick up on those areas we can improve. I’ve got one of the best mentors in the world in Mel. She’s been there and done it all.
“And I speak to Becky quite a lot. She’s been there and done it all. But for now enjoy it, get this relay done and hopefully get another good performance for Team GB.”
Uttoxeter-born Peaty was already world, European and Commonwealth champion but joined the list of fellow Britons David Wilkie in 1976, Duncan Goodhew four years later and Moorhouse in winning Olympic breaststroke gold.
Welsh swimmer Jazz Carlin followed Peaty’s lead in securing a podium finish by winning silver in women’s 400m freestyle.