Swimming · 2016 · Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Peaty Redefines the Breaststroke
A 21-year-old from Uttoxeter breaks his own 100m breaststroke world record to win Britain's first Olympic swimming gold in nearly three decades.
57.13s (world record)
Time
1.56 seconds
Margin of victory
28 years
British men's swimming gold gap
Adam Peaty arrived at the 2016 Rio Olympics as the reigning world champion and world record holder in the 100m breaststroke, having already rewritten the record in the heats. In the final, he went out fast and never let up, touching in 57.13 seconds, breaking his own world record again and finishing over a second clear of the silver medallist, an enormous margin for a sprint final.
The win was Britain's first Olympic swimming gold since Adrian Moorhouse in 1988, ending a 28-year wait for a British male swimmer, and Peaty's dominance in the event over the years that followed, he would hold the world record and Olympic title across multiple Games, established him as arguably the greatest breaststroke swimmer in history.
Peaty's technique, an unusually powerful, high-tempo stroke built on an extensive land-based strength programme, was credited with changing how the event itself was trained and swum at the elite level, influencing a generation of breaststrokers who followed him.
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