A tearful Adam Peaty declared that “in my own heart I have already won” after his quest for an unprecedented third straight Olympic breaststroke gold ended in defeat by just 0.02 seconds.
Having looked for much of the final length like he would join Michael Phelps as the only three-time winner of the same men’s Olympic swimming event, Peaty agonisingly lost to the Italian Nicolò Martinenghi in the final touch for the wall.
Peaty later revealed that he had woken up with a sore throat but refused to make excuses and insisted that it had been a victory just to be back on an Olympic podium after depression, injury, problems with alcohol and almost quitting the sport last year.
“In my heart I have already won,” said Peaty. “I’m not crying because I came second. I am crying because it took so much to get here. The sport has broken me but it has given me life. I got a little bit blindsided. I touched the wall and I truly believed I’d got it.
‘I had a curveball with my throat’
“I had a curveball with my throat. You can train for eight years and not feel 100 per cent on the day. And not being 100 per cent costs you 0.02. That’s just the way it is.”
Peaty, who also has medal chances in the two medley relays later this week, revealed what three-year-old George had said when he hugged him after the medal presentation. “He said, ‘I love you Daddy’. I feel like I’ve been stung by a bee because I feel so swollen in my face because I’ve been crying.”
There was also an apparent reference to how the swimming in Paris is being overshadowed by revelations that 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for a banned substance before the Tokyo Games but were not sanctioned after an explanation of contamination was accepted. “I’m happy it went to an incredible guy and someone who has won it a fair way,” said Peaty. “Everyone in that race who is fair, they all win.”
The atmosphere inside the 15,000 La Defense Arena had earlier reached a fever pitch when the French hero Leon Marchand won the 400m individual medley in an Olympic record 4min 2.95sec.
Max Litchfield also swam brilliantly for a British record time of 4min 8.85sec but that was scant consultation for what was the third consecutive Olympics in which he has finished fourth. Litchfield, who missed a medal by just 0.19sec, had swum a time sufficient to win gold at the Tokyo Games three years ago.
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