Adam Peaty was in his barber’s chair in Uttoxeter when a brief flurry of doubt gripped him. The 21-year-old normally exudes the self-belief befitting a three-times world champion who has swum six of the 10 fastest 100m breaststroke times in history and is arguably Britain’s most likely winner of a gold medal at the Rio Olympics. It would be wrong to call the cheerful Peaty cocky for he talks with a light and often humorous tone even when it is obvious that conviction surges through him. But Peaty is also interesting in his honest admission that he also suffers from occasional dips of uncertainty.
“The last one I had was just before the national trials in April and I was having my hair cut,” he says. “I’ve been going to the same barber the last few years and we have great chats whenever I’m in the chair. He’ll ask: ‘How you doing? How’s the training going?’ Just ordinary obvious things but then, like you do with your barber, you start talking about personal stuff.”
Peaty laughs at the mysterious powers of barbers and hairdressers who so often double up as sympathetic amateur psychiatrists or agony aunts and uncles. “It’s always the way,” he says. “Your barber always knows everything that goes on in the town, doesn’t he?”
So what tormented secrets did Peaty confide to his barber four months before the start of his first Olympic Games? “I kind of told him I was doubting myself that day. That’s the way my mentality works. Before competition I start to question things. I don’t know why it happens but you’ve got to control it so you don’t get too far out of the race. I wasn’t too bad but it was a bit of a mental dip that day. My barber sorted me out right there and then. He said: ‘You’ve got nothing to worry about it. It’s simple. You’re world champion, aren’t you?’”
Last August Peaty was the dominant swimmer at the world championships in Russia. He won the 50m and 100m breaststroke finals, beating his rival and the current Olympic champion, Cameron van der Burgh, at both distances, and set a world record in the shorter sprint. Peaty then picked up his third gold medal in the mixed medley. That performance lifted him to the peak of his sport and set him up perfectly for a tilt at the 100m in Rio – with his only lingering regret that the 50m breaststroke is not an Olympic event.
A leisurely smile spreads across Peaty’s face as he recalls the feelings that returned to him in his barbershop. “Those words he said stopped all the doubts that had been creeping up on me. I thought: ‘Yeah, he is right. I am world champion. What am I scared of?’”
Familiar confidence courses through Peaty again. “It’s not really me being scared for long. It’s more what I’m capable of that is quite scary. My coach, Mel Marshall, realises that, so she reminds me that it’s all about relaxing and getting the best out of myself. Self-doubt comes to all of us at some point but Mel sorts it out. She makes me think how much I love what I’m doing and how important it is to make the most of the position I’m in. Not a lot of people get to go to the Olympics – especially with the chance I’ve got. My barber said the same thing basically.”
His barber sounds interesting as he probes the depths of Peaty’s sporting mentality. The swimmer grins. “He’s a great guy and he cuts my hair for free. He’s brilliant, one of those chilled guys who gives you that same vibe. It’s all about getting those positives right and enjoying the journey and seeing the bigger picture. Once it becomes a chore, or you’re stressing too much, that’s when you start losing.”
Peaty won, as usual, at the British Nationals a few days after his visit to the barber but he reserved his more sparkling form for the European championships in the London Olympic pool in May. “I’m more inspired by the bigger championships and it was in London that I set my world record [for the 100m, in 2015, when he became the first man to record less than 58 seconds].
“So all that emotion comes into play again when we are back in London for the Europeans. But you don’t want to be swimming a world record just before the Olympics, do you? You want save that record-breaking moment for something like an Olympic swim when it’s such a big event and people can really appreciate it.”
At the Europeans, Peaty won the 100m in 58.36, the fastest time of the year and a swim he described as mint because it came in the middle of a rigorous training block when he did not expect to have such speed. He nods vigorously when asked if he has trained harder than ever this year? “Definitely. Mel has really upped the scale ever since the clock turned to 2016. We were training hard already but on 7 January I went out to Australia for over six weeks and it was a brutal training camp. I got through it and didn’t have any breakdowns. Then after the British trials we started pushing on again and my body was getting tired just before the Europeans. But we just keep on pushing to Rio. It’s intense – but brilliant. I love it.”
Does Peaty believe he has begun to intimidate many of his rivals? “It’s like any sport,” he says. “Intimidation has a certain role to play. In tennis Novak Djokovic has been so dominant so long [at least until Wimbledon] that some people are going to be hindered by that when they step out on court with him.
“Maybe some swimmers think I am on top but I’m also going to be up against great athletes who won’t be hindered by that. The top guys know how close we all are. It’s such fine margins and you have to rely on your training to get you even faster. I’ve done that and I am ready to show how fast I can swim in Rio. But I also know how good people like Cameron are and that they’re gunning for me.”
Until Peaty beat Van der Burgh in the Commonwealth Games in 2014 he freely admits that the South African was his idol and he keeps a close watch on the times the Olympic 100m champion and his other rivals have been swimming this year. “You can’t help but come across it,” he says. “You notice when they’ve swum good times but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter whether they pop out a very fast or very slow time.
“You know for sure they’re probably going to be in form in Rio so you have to be prepared for anything. I’m preparing my body for the most brutal racing possible and that’s what I’ve been doing every day. That’s what motivates me to push my body to the extreme. And I come into my own when the competition starts because racing is what I really love.”
Peaty would be odds-on to win double gold if the 50m was being swum in Rio – but he sounds as philosophical as he is ambitious for long-term success. “I can fully focus on the 100 and the medley this time. I’d love the 50 to have been there but that’s a world title for next year. I’m not really fussed about the 200m in Rio. It’s never been my strongest area and I’ve never been 100% confident for that. The plan, after these Olympics, is that we’ll spend the next four years building my system for the 200m in 2020. But Rio is my first Olympics and I don’t want to go with a half-and-half focus. I really want to focus on the 100m and get it done and then come back in four years and hopefully focus on the 200m as well. But gold in the 100m will do nicely now.”
There is so much expectation surrounding Peaty that even here, at an Arena launch of their Powerskin Carbon-Ultra swimwear at the London Aquatics Centre, he cannot escape the looming presence of Rio. Bearing in mind his moments of self-doubt, I wonder if he has found any technique to switch off and bolster his composure. “My coach said get a hobby and so I bought an air rifle.”
Peaty laughs. “I’ve been gunning down a few targets. Never an animal, but I’m quite a dead eye when aiming at targets in the garden. Little things like that help me to relax and prepare my mind. You need something away from the pool because swimming is such a full-on sport. I’m training 35-40 hours a week. It’s like a full-time job so you don’t want to come home and think about swimming. It might just be chilling out or going for a walk with the dog or shooting some targets.
“My dog is called Monty. He’s a German Pointer. He’s a good dog. So much energy, but so gentle-hearted. And he’ll pee over your foot if you’re getting too smart.”
He may still lives at home with his parents he is influenced by “proper ghetto music” in the form of grime and old-school hip-hop. He gets almost misty-eyed when lauding the recent N.W.A. film, set in Compton, Los Angeles in 1988 – as gangsta rap took shape six years before he was born. “Loved it,” he says of Straight Outta Compton. “Awesome. I don’t want to sound like I’m being cliched but it was really about giving power to the people. They were rapping about their troubles but you can relate to it.
“It’s why I love grime so much. It gives you that confidence. It’s still just sick beats and you’ve got some 15- or 16-year-old kid spitting bars and you’re thinking: ‘This kid is pretty good’ and something he’s done has millions of views already. That’s what I mean about it giving you confidence. If they can stand up and do it on their own and get millions of views, it shows you that you can do anything.
“I know the Olympics are big – but it shouldn’t feel like a struggle. It’s a privilege. That’s why in the call room in Rio I’ll probably listen to Jaykae [a grime artist from Birmingham]. It just sounds like Jaykae and all his mates, singing about their lives, but in the call room it will almost feel like I’ve got them behind me.”
Does Jaykae have any idea that a possible Olympic gold champion from Uttoxeter will turn to him for inspiration? “He messaged me after I shouted him out on Radio 1,” Peaty says with a grin. “He said: ‘Thanks, bro. Thanks fan. Big respect.’ He’s a proper Brummie. He’s also a proper … I won’t say gangster but he’s proper hard. He’s a massive idol for me even though he’s not as big as some people in the rap world. But I love grime. That aggression you get and him rapping about his troubles. It really inspires me.”
Do any of the other British swimmers share his musical tastes? Peaty shakes his head as he thinks of James Guy – the world 200m freestyle champion and GB’s next best hope for gold at the Olympics. “He likes smooth stuff. So Craig David is his musical hero. But his new stuff is all right – and everyone’s different.”
Knowing his darker musical preferences, has his barber tried to give Peaty more of a street-style haircut – perhaps with some Olympic rings shaved into his head? “I think he wants to – but no. We’ll stick to aiming for an Olympic gold medal instead.”
