BBC Sports Personality 2014 contender: Adam Peaty
- Published
"He's had a phenomenal year competing against some of the best guys in the world" - former world swimming champion Mark Foster.
Year in a nutshell
Swimmer became a double Commonwealth gold medallist and four-time European champion
At the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, took gold in the 100m breaststroke and 4x100m relay medley, and a silver in the 50m breaststroke
In Berlin at the Europeans, broke the 50m breaststroke world record en route to winning gold in four different disciplines
Won silver in two individual events and team relay at the World Short Course Championships in Doha
The inside track: Adam Peaty
Mark Foster, six-time world swimming champion, gives his thoughts on 19-year-old Adam Peaty.
"Adam's had a phenomenal year competing against some of the best guys around even if it wasn't at the World Championships or Olympics," said Foster.
"In the Commonwealth Games he beat the number two and three in the world, and at the Europeans he broke the world record.
"He seems so relaxed and confident. Every time you face him, you know you are going to have a race and will need to be on your game.
"If you look at the times and performances he's done this year, and when he did them, he should be on the starting block as one of the favourites at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. He can go faster.
"He was 12th in the world last year which goes to show how far he's come.
"Adam trains in a relatively small centre in Derby and has a great team around him. His coach Mel Marshall is a multiple Commonwealth Games winner, and his mentor is Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington. People who have been there and done it."
Four facts about Adam Peaty | |
|---|---|
Peaty, who hails from Uttoxeter in Staffordshire and is based at the City of Derby pool, is 6ft 3ins tall, and weighs around 189lb (or 13-and-a-half stone). | Before the Commonwealths, his timetable involved getting up at 04:00 GMT; swimming from 0500-0700; gym until 08:30 then college studies before further pool and fitness sessions later in the day |
His weekly training routine usually involves 10 separate swimming and five gym sessions as he tries to maintain peak fitness. | Peaty's world record for the 50m breaststroke of 26.2 seconds means he was travelling through the water at more than six feet a second - the equivalent of 6.8 kilometres or nearly 4.3 miles an hour. |
Mark Foster was talking to BBC Sport's Frank Keogh
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