Adam Ramsay-Peaty sat in a small room on the outskirts of Glasgow on a quiet Thursday morning, a weary smile on his face. He had just endured a rough night, managing less than three hours of sleep after winning his third medal of the Commonwealth Games. The medals were a bronze in the 100m breaststroke, another bronze in the 50m, and a silver in the men's 4x100m medley. For most swimmers, that would be success. For the double Olympic champion, it felt like a body blow.
None of the three medals were gold, and none came with the aura of invincibility that had defined him for eight years. There were tears of frustration and an admission that “nothing makes sense this week”. He also fired a message at the tabloid press and social media tormentors, insisting “you can’t hurt me” before urging an end to excessive intrusion into his private life: “It has to stop. How many athletes have to go through this until the media learn their lesson?”
A rollercoaster week in Glasgow
“I couldn’t switch off because it’s been a real rollercoaster of a week,” Ramsay-Peaty said. “Decompressing last night was hard.” The European championships begin in Paris on 10 August, and he will use them to gather himself for the next chapter in a tumultuous career, one he hopes will peak at the LA Olympics in 2028.
“I’ve experienced a lot in this sport,” said the 31-year-old. “I’m never going to stop believing what I can do. I just need to get to that peak once more.”
Ramsay-Peaty did not lose a single race in the 100m breaststroke from 2014 to 2022. He won three Olympic golds and eight world titles, and by 2021 had swum the 20 fastest times in the discipline’s history, plus the 10 fastest in the 50m.
The burnout and the comeback
After finally losing a 100m race at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, he suffered a breakdown a year later, quit swimming and lost himself in drink and depression. He dragged himself back from the brink and, in the 2024 Olympic final, missed gold by two-hundredths of a second while swimming with an undiagnosed case of Covid.
“After those Commonwealths in Birmingham,” he said of that shock defeat four years ago, “I went on the attack and turned myself into scorched earth. I gave too much and that led to the burnout zone in 2023. I know not to do that now. I’ve got to find that peace and consolidation and realise we couldn’t have done anything more.”
He has been working with a new coach, Lisa Bates, for 12 weeks in London. “We’ve trained extremely hard. I’ve only been 12 weeks in London with a new coach and a new programme. That takes time to reach fruition. Once you prune the tree, you grow more fruit in the end.”
After losing the 100m on Saturday, having swum almost three seconds slower than his world record, he said: “I’m not crying because it’s a bronze instead of a gold. I’m crying because I know that the swim could have been better, and I worked way better than that.” The 50m bronze was accepted more philosophically: “When I was undefeated for eight years, it was athlete first, then human. Now it’s human first.”
A new mindset
“It’s a natural progression from putting absolutely everything into the sport, which came at a huge cost,” he explained. “You realise now that if you’re second you’re not going to die. You just have to learn from it. So there is a new approach because to do what I did you have to go to a place of anger, almost a place of hate, and I don’t want to be in that place. It’s a huge emotional cost that isn’t sustainable. I know I can win with a newer mindset and without the dark stuff.”
Looking ahead to the Europeans, the old fire crackled: “I’ve still got to burn the boats. I’ve still got to go all in, and believe I can win. If I don’t have that mentality I’m never going to get close. I know the Europeans are going to be fast in the heats. But I’m going to be good.”
“Every athlete has their own version of success,” he said. “Of course, mine is still tied to quantifiable things like medals and times. But if I enjoy this journey and know I’ve given my best, and I touch that scoreboard in LA, that’s already success. That’s not defeatist. I’m still going to be a warrior. I’m still going to fight and give my absolute best.”
No hiding in swimming
He was told about a column by his colleague Barney Ronay comparing him to ageing sporting greats such as Lionel Messi. Ramsay-Peaty grinned, having watched the 39-year-old Messi stroll around World Cup pitches before bursting into genius when needed.
“Team sports have the benefit of being able to carry special players. But as a swimmer, when you’re older, it’s harder to race in the heats, and then the semis and finals. There’s nowhere to hide. When I’m going through that last 25 metres, it’s not like I can pass the ball and say: ‘You take this bit for me.’ Believe me, I probably would. But on the other side, with the success I had when I was younger, I wouldn’t have wanted to be in a team sport because my values and work ethic are so high I don’t think anyone could have kept up.”
Asked what went wrong in Glasgow, especially after he won the nationals a few months ago in a time that would have clinched gold in the Commonwealth final, he said: “I was probably in a better block of work then, as we have to constantly balance our aerobic and anaerobic capacities. Maybe this past week was one of adaptation and, with a week of rest going into the Euros, I’ll be stronger. I worked the hardest I’ve worked in a very long time these last 12 weeks but maybe it wasn’t enough time for me to adapt. You also have to be race‑fit, and that’s a very different skill set. It still doesn’t make sense but tomorrow we have a debrief with my coach, Lisa Bates.”
“We overthink a lot in this sport and we can look at all the data variables and rip up what is actually a lot of good work. Sometimes we just have a bad day, and that’s OK. But it’s not OK if it keeps happening.”
Family, tabloids and forgiveness
Bates replaced Mel Marshall, who had coached Ramsay-Peaty his entire career until the 2024 Olympics and now works in Australia. “I’ve known Lisa for a long time,” Ramsay-Peaty said, “and Mel’s very close friends with her. It came with the decision to move to London because my wife [Holly] is pregnant so we needed her family. We’re having a little girl in December.”
Holly’s father is Gordon Ramsay, and the combination of a celebrity chef’s family and an Olympic champion’s working-class family from Uttoxeter has been catnip for the tabloids. Personal problems between the swimmer and his parents have fuelled feverish gossip, and adding his wife’s name since their marriage has only added to the speculation.
Has it had a serious impact? “I wouldn’t say on me because I’ve got a thick skin. But I care about my wife, I care about my son [from his previous relationship]. I care about the relationships that people think I have with my son, and my own family, but that’s my private life. I have incredible relationships with some people in the media, like the one with you, which is built on trust over time. The ones that don’t go well are with the tabloids selling these stories for advertising. It’s pretty much the downfall of society when we’re exploiting people’s private lives to sell. Will it get better? Probably not. Will the truth come out one day? Absolutely.”
His mother, Caroline, posted a statement on social media this week about the rift. Is he hopeful of reconciliation? “For me, as a Christian, there has to be forgiveness. It doesn’t mean you have to forget, but forgiveness takes time. I’m not saying that it won’t get better but it has to come from a place where I feel like they’ve improved as people, in a sense, and opened that communication up. I haven’t told one thing to the media. I haven’t done one story over the last eight months and more.”
Finding the balance for LA
He was read a quote he gave in 2015, after winning three gold medals at the world championships. Aged 20, he had said: “I feel no pressure. I enjoy racing. What’s the worst that could happen? You’re going to come second or lose? It’s not like someone has got a gun to your head.”
Eleven years on, he said: “There’s a part of me which screams that you want that risk [of hating defeat]. That’s the athlete. The human knows that isn’t the right path. That isn’t going to make me the best husband, the best father, the best friend. That athlete is incredibly selfish, and will ruin any form of relationship. I guarantee that because I’ve been there. But I still haven’t found that healthy medium.”
“In training I don’t struggle one bit with that [athlete’s] mentality. I can switch it off when I leave training. It’s more about the exhaustion of training twice a day, going for it every single day. It’s now about finding what is optimal and sustainable in LA.”
If preparing for the 100m, he needs to swim around 9,000m on a training day. If he focuses only on the 50m, it would be “way less, probably 3,000m a day. You’d only have to do 12k a week, but I’m doing 40k for an extra 50 metres.” Is he thinking of giving up the 100m? “Not yet, no. I know I can be so strong in the 100. We’ve got to keep it in perspective. This is my first championships in two years. It’s been a bad week and we need to be better.”
Does he believe he can find the elusive balance of compulsion and decency and, in 2028, complete his journey meaningfully? He paused, then his face cracked into a gleaming smile. “Yes. I’ve got a good armoury. I’ve just to get the polishing cloth out now.”
