When Adam Peaty triumphed in the 100m breaststroke, becoming the first British man to win a gold medal in the pool for a quarter of a century, most of Britain was asleep.
But there was a light on in the Sheffield home of Mavis Williams, his 74-year-old grandmother, who was watching his winning swim in the early hours of Monday morning – and tweeting about it.
My Grandson has done it 👏👏🏊🏻🏊🏻👍@adam_peaty @britishswimming @adam_peaty
— Mavis (@Mavise42Mavis) August 8, 2016
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
— Mavis (@Mavise42Mavis) August 8, 2016
Williams, whose Twitter handle is @Mavise42Mavis, has developed a following of more than 3,000 and has even spawned her own hashtag, #OlympicNan, since she joined the social media platform in April.
With a Twitter biography that describes herself as “Proud Nan to a World Champion Breaststroker”, Williams has managed to capture attention by chronicling Peaty’s Olympic journey from a personal perspective.
After he won the world record in the 100m breaststroke on Saturday, she couldn’t contain her glee, posting “What a race ooo I’m so proud,” and showing off some deft emoji use.
Williams said she was introduced to Twitter by her daughter, Caroline, Adam’s mother. Her only goal was to get more followers than Caroline.
“You don’t go out as much as you do when you were younger, now do you?” she told The Associated Press on Sunday. “It’s given me a new interest and kept my brain working.”
#OlympicNan #TeamPeaty pic.twitter.com/mnpGoqsbzO
— Mavis (@Mavise42Mavis) July 21, 2016
Among her tweets is a picture of her at this year’s aquatics championships at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park next to some sort of mascot creature named Ray. There is a picture of her beloved Adam in his Olympic uniform.
There’s even a thank you to the person who helped decorate her home in preparation for the games.
“I’m ready for Rio now thanks to my kind window cleaner who put my bunting up,” she tweeted.
Mostly, she’s so proud she’s bursting. She thinks her tweets help Adam and the team — just to let them know their fans are pulling for them from far away.
But her chronicle is also a reminder that those behind the athletes are sometimes on as much of a journey as the competitors themselves. And no matter how many followers she gets, when her friendly competition with Caroline is over, she plans to send out a thank-you tweet to all the people who decided to follow her. They’ve taught her a lot, after all.
“I think it’s nice to thank someone — even if it is just a tweet,” she said.
Associated Press contributed to this report
