Top 20 Most Significant Swim Stories Of 2016: #4 – The Marshall Art Of Peaty Power

SwimVortex continues a countdown of the most significant swimming stories of Olympic Year 2016.

Our series so far:

5: Murphy’s Law, USA Rules 6: Dolphins Down Under But No Underdogs 7: The colour is Gold: Olympic gold 8: Bob Bowman’s Golden Rules 9: The slow burn of Sarah Sjostrom and coaches 10: Mireia, Fred & The Alchemy Of If To When 11: Gregorio The Great 30-Lapper 12: Putting the Great Back Into Britain 13: Masters, Servants & Subsidies – a model of governance that has had its day 14: The ruinous nature of runes in an Olympic year 15: Custodians in Crisis: FINA – Same As It Ever Was 16: The Australia/ China interface highlights questions of faith & fair dinkum 17:  Schools Out; Schooling’s In: aspiration, inspiration and the impact of Michael Phelps 18. The Swimming Selfie 19. The Canadian Comeback  20. On Hosszu Heights

Today, Adam Peaty, whose 57.13sec world record for Olympic gold in the 100m breaststroke was the performance of the year, on impact, on points, on sheer dominance over rivals. 

No 4 – The Marshall Art Of Peaty Power

Adam Peaty, of Great Britain, ends 2016 with 12 of the best 100m breaststroke times ever, including the top 9 of the best 11 – and the swiftest seven swims ever.

Consider: 57.13 for Olympic gold in a world record that thumped into submission his own 57.55 from heats, his pre-Games standard of 57.92, beyond which Peaty, coached by Mel Marshall at City of Derby, has a further three efforts before we get to the 58.46 at which the Olympic crown was won in world-record time by South African Cameron van der Burgh just one Games earlier.

You must go back to the days of pioneers before you find such dominance in any 100m event among men. What Adam Peaty posted in Rio 2016, Olympic final for gold in a timewarp world-record, went beyond the equivalent supremacy of the likes of Mark Spitz. Look to one of the all-time greats of the sport, Roland Matthes, in 1968 and we find a backstroke equivalent of what Peaty achieved.

Stick to breaststroke and there can be no doubting Peaty’s right to a plinth apart in the pantheon come the close of his racing days.

The biggest winning margin in history had been 0.49 – back to 1972, Nobutaka Taguchi over Thomas Bruce. Now: 1.56sec.

What does that mean? How dominant does that make Peaty, the first Brit since Adrian Moorhouse in 1988 to lift Olympic gold in any men’s event (it happened to be the same one, too)?

Well here’s one way of looking at the enormity of it:

Adam Peaty by D’alberto-Pirroke LaPresse for arena

How many men can you get within 1.56sec of Olympic gold, 100m breaststroke? Answer:

2016 2 men 2012 14 2008 7 2004 19 2000 15 1996 8 1992 16 1988 13

Back in 2012, Peaty watched the London home Games on the television after getting drunk in a field and wondering what his life had come to. He took a side glimpse at the efforts of teammate to be Craig Benson and kicked himself. It was the moment he answered the eternal question: to be or not to be. Emphatically, it was ‘to be’.

By 2014, Peaty was ready for a breakthrough season, with Commonwealth and European crowns coinciding with the recovery of Great Britain. The 2015 season confirmed Peaty as the man to beat on the clock, with his pioneering 57.92 that aped the speed of Tarzan on freestyle, and in the race, the 50 and 100m world titles his in Kazan.

Come Olympic trials, Peaty was not only ready to confirm his status as gold-medal shot but spoke of being ‘nowhere near’ where he felt he could take the world record. Pressure, he suggested, was something to shrug off – an illusion. The brave words of a man talking up his own prospects for confidence sake? No, as it turned out. He was telling it like he knew it to be: the home of genuine confidence.

Peaty’s impact has not only and will not only be felt in his breaststroke battles. His attitude, his work ethic, his manner, his grounded-ness all feed into the leadership role he has, is and will play for Great Britain. There is a military approach and intent to Marshall’s man. That does not make him invincible (as Michael Phelps would tell you) but it does and will make him one of the toughest nuts to crack in world sport.

After Peaty clocked 56.59sec for his stunning split in the medley relay that delivered silver for Great Britain, father of the gold medal winners, Michael Phelps, followed an expletive with ‘56.5?! Mad’ according to the boys who shared the GOAT’s last moment on the Olympic deck.

The world’s camera’s whirring, Phelps, said: “It’s just exciting to see what the future is going to bring. We’ve got a lot of hungry kids out there and some exciting swimmers.

“We have people like Katie Ledecky, Adam Peaty and Murph (Ryan Murphy), from all over the world. What Peaty did out there was just amazing.”

Indeed it was. The 2017 season will begin next week with Peaty and Marshall at their new base in Loughborough.

Mel Marshall Law At Loughborough: ‘Put People 1st, Performance Takes Care Of Itself’ – a chat with SwimVortex

They’ve been on camp in Dubai of late and in the third week of January will travel to the Euro Meet in Luxembourg for the first small test of world-title defence year.

Down the line, he has in mind a 56sec 100m swim, a challenge to the world record over 200m, too, if the plan and pathway see fit to open up that way.

And so it begins, thrilling prospects ahead on the way to Tokyo 2020. For now, over to the archive for those who wish to be reminded:

From the Archive

Rio 2016 Olympic Gold

Adam Peaty Pulverises The World Record With 57.13 Blast For Olympic Gold

Adam Peaty Roars – by Patrick B. Kraemer

Adam Peaty had gone through the Olympic 100m breaststroke rounds in a world record of 57.55 and a 57.62 in the semi that granted him a third sub-58 16 months after his pioneering 57.92 in London.

Mind the Gap: 57.13 – World Record. Beamonesque World Record. The seascape of the stroke has shifted forever. This was the biggest margin of victory ever seen over 100m, a second beyond the 0.49sec the standard had stood at since Munich 1972.

The silver went to defending champion Cameron Van der Burgh (RSA) in 58.69, the bronze to Cody Millar (USA) in 58.87, an American record.

How Adam Peaty’s Gold Lifted Mel Marshall From Shadow Of Mount Olympus To Summit

Consider the magnitude of that there and back:

Adam Peaty celebrates – by Patrick B. Kraemer

The There – the fastest five solo 50m swims in history, showing how a split time roke into uncharted waters:

26.42 Peaty World record 2015 26.51 Peaty World title 2015 26.61 Peaty split at half-way in thhe Rio 2016 final 26.62 Cameron Van Der Burgh (RSA) = WR heats, world championships 2015 26.62 Peaty WR European Championships 2014

The splits Peaty’s been working on

26.61 – 30.52 – 57.13 WR – Adam Peaty (GBR) – Olympic Gold 2016 27.04 – 30.88 – 57.92 – Adam Peaty WR – London, April, 2015 27.61 – 30.91 – 58.68 – Adam Peaty, GBR Berlin 2014 European title

Adam Peaty –  by Patrick B. Kraemer

London 2012 Gold – how the pace moved on

27.07 – 31.39 – 58.46 Cameron van der Burgh (RSA) Olympic Gold 2012

The Back: 30.52 – where most of that stunning 1.5sec advantage on the rest is to be found and the place that speaks to the blueprint coach Melanie Marshall has been working on: devastating on the way out, sprinting close to best, impossible to match on the way home, stamina coupled to strength and that read light Peaty flicks on in his mind’s eye when needing to “dig deep … anything, could be something really nice someone’s said about me or something bad or sad…”.

The line-up was held a touch long on their blocks but Peaty, gunning for Britain’s first medal of the Games, stood solid, his determination to make no mistake costing him a fraction in time but keeping him safe. For that is what he needed to be. No-one else was getting close to the 58sec mark.

If the dive was not the best in the race and left him in line or a slither behind people either side of him, momentum was his the moment he started to move down the lap. Power, rhythm, flow, a good turn, great glide out and never a moment all the way to the wall when you thought he might start to struggle: those were the hallmarks of a swim executed by a man who had practiced to go places no man had gone before.

To celebrate, Peaty left on the lane line and mirrored the posed of Christ the Redeemer, arms outstretched as if in thanks and praise.

In victory, Peaty became the first British man since Adrian Moorhouse won the same crown, to take Olympic gold in the pool in any event since 1988.

Peaty’s first Olympic final was all about the prize not the time but the time rose like a twin peak in a seismic storm. It was not only just about gold but gold in a world record that he had panned for every day in training with coach Mel Marshall at the City of Derby SC since a flick was switched by London 2012 in a teenager watching remotely, ready to “get drunk in a field” but opting instead to make it better.

Adam Peaty by Patrick B. Kraemer

At 57.13, Peaty swam off the chart of everyone’s expectations but those of self and coach Marshall. When her charge set the world record at 57.92 in London last year, Marshall told SwimVortex that was a “dress rehearsal” and that Peaty could be “much faster”. She was right.

Marshall had wanted Peaty out in 26.8, back in 30.4. “That’s what we had in mind.” He rocketed out in 26.61 and returned in 30.52 for a 57.13 that was a touch beyond where they thought he could get to today.

“Project 56” was will start after holidays, said Marshall, who uttered words that will be as terrifying as thrilling for current rivals and the standard to strive for among those working their way through the development ranks of world breatsstroke: “Eight more years, he’s got in him. It’s going to be a great eight years.”

Peaty emerged from battle to say:

“I can’t even put it into words how much that swim meant to me. Going down that last 50 I was aware that I was in front, but not by that much. I touched the wall, looked to my left and I was like ‘where is everybody’? That swim for me was probably the best executed, the perfect race.”

At more than 1.5sec ahead of the rest in a 100m race, Peaty was swimming in a different age. Asked how those gains had come about, he said: “Coming up to worlds last year I was a bit anxious, wasn’t aware what it was going to be like to compete on the world stage. But we fixed those problems, fixed my dive, put so much effort into my dive and so much more effort into the back end and that’s what you get.

“Me and Mel coming into this meet thought the best possible race we could do is 57.3. 57.1 is… It’s absolutely incredible.”

Adam Peaty by PBK

Marshall held back tears as she described her charge’s work ethic and much more (full interview in the pipeline). but where some might have expected her to choke a touch, she stood tall and pinned self-understanding  to the mast.

A reporter asked how she felt about events in the context of her own Olympic ambitions as world No 1 on the clock over 200m freestyle going into Athens 2004. Says Marshall:

“It was 12 years ago and if I look back now, I’d say that was my defining moment as a coach. I would never have been able to guide him to this if I had not had that experience myself. I feel like this, for me, was my Olympic gold. I went through that and that’s just how it is, but now I get to help the guys hopefully realise their dreams year on year.”

Queen and Country

Peaty sang his way through the national anthem after claiming his first Olympic medal in his first Olympic final he gave a thumbs up to teammates, his mother and father, Caroline and Mark Peaty, and girlfriend Anna Zair, up in the stands – and one for the cameras for his nan and siblings back home. He said afterwards:

“I want to thank the whole of Britain, my country, the Royal family and everything that makes me proud to be British.”

Seven years of prep at the City of Derby club had led him to this moment, 14 years old when he came under Marshall’s law and now 21. Before battle, head Britain coach Bill Furniss had used the same phrase as Marshall uses:

“Go out and burn the boats – move forward and attack”.

Said Peaty: “I wasn’t scared of anyone, it was complete tunnel vision. I am just so happy for British Swimming now, for Team GB because it’s the first gold of the games and what better than to come from swimming.”

A surprise star of Peaty’s story has been his adoring grandmother, Mavis Williams, who roared him on in the early hours of Monday morning from her home in Sheffield.

Tweeting her congratulations to the winner and his coach, Melanie Marshall, she wrote:

“Well you have done it @adam-peaty you have made it, your hard work paid off. Congratulations to you and @massivemel. So proud love Nan x.”

Caroline and Adam Peaty

Mrs Peaty said she was “ecstatic”, while a hoarse Mr Peaty, who had never seen his son raced internationally (“someone has to stay home and look after the house, the dog and what not”) appeared lost for words. “It was good. Very good. He’s got two world records in the matter of two days,” said dad.

Moments after his victory, teammate Jazmin Carlin buried the pain of an Olympic campaign lost to illness that kept her off the team for London four years ago with silver in the 400 metres freestyle behind Katie Ledecky’s world record. Carlin, who noted that she had been “pumped up by Adam’s world record”, said:

“Four years ago I was in the stand cheering everyone on and now I’ve actually been a part of the team and to come away with a silver medal, I’m absolutely over the moon. I’m so grateful to everyone at home that’s been supporting us and to get up and watch us at ridiculous hours of the morning.”

New British Prime Minister Theresa May send congratulations to Rio: “Many congratulations to Adam Peaty and Jazz Carlin for winning Team GB’s first medals at Rio 2016 this morning.

“I hope their success will inspire many more of the UK’s world class team to fulfil their potential and bring home a medal, just as all those who are competing for the UK in Rio are an inspiration to many more youngsters back home.

“This coming fortnight reminds us all that with the right support, determination and dedication you can get as far as your talents will take you. The whole country wishes the team good luck and great success. We are proud of you.”

Pushing Boundaries

Peaty intends to be around for another couple go Olympic cycles. “I’m going to keep pushing the boundaries no-one else has pushed before. I’m saying that like I’ve swum slow. We’re obsessed with self-improvement, pushing Team GB forward. I never want to stand on the blocks as Team GB and not give it 100 per cent. This next cycle is about restarting, enjoying it for the first couple of years then hitting the home run for the next Olympics.”

Peaty said he had come to excel not to just be there:

“That idea of just making the team and not really pushing the team forward is not really what I do. I’m not going to settle for this. I’m going to push forwards.

He said it would now be good to get back to Repton School, to Loughborough and to see the friends and supporters and staff who have helped him get to where he is. And his message to all was: you’ve all got it in you. People think you need so much to be an Olympic gold medallist. You really don’t. All you’ve got to do is put 100 per cent effort in each day.

“My parents have been there from the start, kept me grounded. They’ve never once said ‘you can’t do this’.”

Patriotic Peaty has the Union Flag in his hands as he speaks. He unfurls it a touch and says:

“I look at those flags, representing one of the best countries in the world, seeing this colour and the combination in this order just means so much to me. We’ve done so much in the history of this country. I take that into every swim I do. To represent the Queen, to represent the country and to represent the people at home means so much to me. It’s an absolute honour to me.

Nan – Trending

Mavis Williams, Peaty’s 74-year-old grandmother, was back home in England sitting up through the night to cheer the on in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire.

Footage of the moment showed Ms Williams shouting: “Yes! He’s done it!”

Aged 74, Ms Williams joined Twitter ahead of the Games, labelling herself the £OlympicNan and tweeting her congratulations to the 21-year-old swimming sensation and his GB team-mates.

After her grandson (right on a donkey when young, courtesy of the Peaty family) scooped gold – and smashed his own world record for the second time in two days – she proudly told her 3,400 followers: “My Grandson has done it.”

In a tweet to Peaty and his coach, Melanie Marshall, she added: “Well you have done it @adam-peaty you have made it, your hard work paid off. Congratulations to you and @massivemel. So proud love Nan x.”

She later told ITV’s Good Morning Britain she is “proud as punch” of her grandson and described the exhilarating experience of watching him storm to glory.

She said: “I went ballistic, (I was) excited and very pleased for him because he’s worked so hard for it and I knew he would do it but I wouldn’t let on. It was exciting from the word go, I just had my hands in front of my eyes until he was off the block.”

Ms Williams, dubbed “classic” by her Olympic champion grandson, said she was looking forward to giving him a hug when he returns home.

Asked what she thinks he will make of her new-found Twitter fame, she said: “I think he will be all right and say ‘Go for it’.”

Ms Williams is now winning a race of her own – to get more followers than Caroline Peaty, the Olympic champion’s mother. Nan told the Associated Press:

“You don’t go out as much as you do when you were younger, now do you? It’s given me a new interest and kept my brain working.”

For now, they’ll be no tweeting back by her grandson. He had been under a self-imposed social media blackout to avoid distraction. A few hours he was done, however, he switched his phone on and posted a shot of himself after the race, arms outstretched, as in our main image on this article.

And he said of his proudest fan: “She’s a great nan and she’s always loved swimming. Hopefully, I’ve done her proud.”

Peaty’s Pool – Mind The Gap

When the Brazilian Government take Peaty’s Pool on tour around the country as planned after the Games, they’ll need to stamp a warning sign on the block at the end of Lane 4: Mind the Gap.

If Adrian Moorhouse triumphed by the smallest margin possible in the pool, 0.01sec, at Seoul in 1988, then Peaty, the 21-year-old from Uttoxeter trailblazing a pioneering pace on breaststroke with the fastest seven times in history over 100, crushed the opposition by the biggest gap ever seen.

Moorhouse, there to witness the moment as a commentator, told The Times through tears in his eyes: “What a sensational swim. It’s like a loop has been closed, like the start of a new era. That’s a good thing for me, if only because it might stop my mates ribbing me that when I won in 1988 Adam and the rest of this British team in Rio wasn’t even born.”

A champion at the heart of a long tradition in British breaststroke, Moorhouse believed that Peaty’s win would inspire the next wave of breaststroke talent in Britain. “Out there somewhere is the next one – and Britain has to find him.”

Adam Peaty by Patrick B. Kraemer

Peaty’s dominance can be measured in more ways that one: you have to go back to the first half of the last century to find a pioneer setting world records a second and more ahead of the next best man in history. Yet that is where Peaty is with the 57.55 world record he established in heats in his first Olympic race on Saturday.

Van der Burgh claimed the London 2012 in a world record of 58.46sec. He remains the second best ever but Peaty now owns the seven swiftest performances ever, his best four inside 58sec. That kind of dominance on the clock over peers in the pool was last seen when the man they called the Rolls Royce of backstroke, East German Roland Matthes, in the days before doping, was racing to legendary status.

Peaty then burst into laughter at the sheer joy of being at his first Olympics and experiencing the high of 14,000 people cheering him on surround sound at its best in a compact venue where the seats run interrupted in an oval all sides of the pool.

By the time Johnny “Tarzan” Weissmuller had finished a 1920s career that included being the first man ever to break the minute over 100m freestyle, by far the swiftest stroke of the four in the pool, his global …

continue reading in source www.swimvortex.com