Ten Years On, Adam Peaty Recalls Maiden Voyage To 57Secs That Heralded The 100 Breaststroke World Record Run
It’s exactly 10 years to the day since Adam Peaty set his first world record in the 100m breaststroke at the London Aquatic Centre.
The 20-year-old had already taken ownership of the 50m global standard the previous year when he went 26.62 at the 2014 European Championships.
On Friday 17 April 2015, Peaty took to the blocks, flanked by James Wilby and Ross Murdoch, for the 100 final at the British Championships which doubled as trials for the worlds in Kazan, Russia.
Adam Peaty: Photo Courtesy: gianmattiadalberto/lapresse
Out in 27.04 and back in 30.88, Peaty touched in 57.92 to demolish the previous standard of 58.46 set by Cameron van der Burgh in the same lane four of the very same pool en-route to Olympic gold at London 2012.
Peaty, then coached by long-time mentor Mel Marshall at the City of Derby club, stood atop the lane blocks with his arms aloft as the crowd stood to celebrate the young man from Uttoxeter who’d become the first swimmer inside 58secs.
Ten years on and Peaty is a triple Olympic champion, an eight-time world gold medallist with 16 European and four Commonwealth titles.
Now 30, he subsequently lowered the WR a further four times, topped by his other-worldly 56.88 at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju with his 50m mark standing at 25.95 since the 2017 worlds in Budapest.
Sitting in the London Aquatic Centre during the 2025 Aquatics GB Swimming Championships, Peaty recalled that historic evening which heralded a record-breaking bull run.
Adam Peaty at London Aquatic Centre: Photo Courtesy: Aquatics GB
He told Swimming World: “I think we were in a place there where we’d won Commonwealths, we’d got the world record in the 50 in Berlin in 2014 and then a lot of people were like can he win the Olympics? Umming and ahhing. And I think me and Mel at that time were fighting a battle of actually we are going to win, we’re going to fight that.
“And I remember her saying after that – now people will believe in us because we’re so far ahead of rest of the world at 57.92. But also, I can do it at a British Swimming Championships and we were delayed by 30 minutes in the call room and I’d still got so much to improve on.
“I was out in a 27-zero I think it was and came back in 30.88, it was fast. “It’s crazy. The 200 was first that week and I won that in 2:08.3 and then it was the 100 at the end of the week and then the 50 the day after the 100 so it a busy week.”
