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

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Updated: August 8, 2016

No words are needed between coach Mel Marshall and Adam Peaty when there’s a job to be done, so deep the level of their understanding of and feel for each other, the swimmer has ofetn said. But this was an Olympic final. His first at that. And he waa as hot a favourite as you could possible hope to be.

Had Marshall exchanged words before Peaty left for the call room and his date with sporting destiny as the champion who clocked a Beamonesque 57.13 for gold? She replied in a tone and manner you felt she – not to mention Nanny McPhee – might have when addressing a charge about to leave for duty:

“My final words to him were: use your speed, with a great stroke, use your courage with a great stroke and go and make some history.”

Had she thought him capable of that 57.13? “Absolutely. We just had to keep it a secret. We have been doing a variety of things where we were trying to go 26.8 down the first 50 and 30.4 down the back 50. He went 26.6 and 30.5. We have been doing a series of things to make sure we got that – and we’ve done it, near enough.”

The perfect plan “near enough”, she suggested. Being able to achieve a certain condition, fitness, strength of all the elements that go into performance is one thing, putting them all together and drawing on them under pressure in an Olympic final a level up but Peaty never once appeared to be phased by his debut in the biggest pool of all. Says Marshall:

“I know what he is like and the bigger the arena, the better he gets. For me, he has had to wait for this one. We wanted to wait. We didn’t want to do anything at the trials, we didn’t want to do anything too early. We wanted to be great down the back end of the year. Tonight the plan was to use your speed with a great stroke, use your courage with a great stroke and show the world what you have got and make some history. That’s what he did.”

Adam Peaty by Patrick B. Kraemer

Bill Furniss, Britain head coach and mentor to double Olympic champion of 2008 Becky Adlington – Peaty’s athlete mentor – had also told had a short exchange with Peaty as he left for work: “Go and burn the boats … ” – an all-in approach, for Queen and country.

Peaty’s proved good at that, while his ability to keep emotions in check, powder dry until the moment he needs to fire, has long been a part of preparing him for a special moment years beyond thinking it all possible.

What mood had he been in before race? Marshall replies: “It depends what race it is. I think he was quite relaxed tonight. You just read the body language and try to guide them in the right direction.

“All this stuff in terms of arena training, I felt we did years ago.”

Marshall did it years ago, too? She arrive in Athens as the world No 1 on the clock in 2004 over 200m freestyle. Princess Anne turned up for semis but it was not to be Marshall’s day. That would come 12 years later on a sensational night in Rio, the experience of loss and letdown fuel for another journey.

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.”

“Little did I know that that moment there was my defining moment as a coach. I feel like I know now that it’s about balance, in terms of making sure you’re not pushing too hard and you’re not pushing not hard enough, particularly in that last year. That’s why I’m here, because of that I can help guide people through this process. It is a very challenging process.

“The first thing you say if you go to number one in the world and don’t win is so-and-so has failed to win a gold medal, when they may have got silver. The odds of winning the …

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