Adam Peaty interview: No child needs to wake up at 4am for swimming – it should be banned

Adam Peaty, Britain’s greatest swimmer, has called for a major overhaul of coaching in the United Kingdom to end the early-morning training of young children.

“There’s no physiological reason why a kid, at nine years old, needs to get up at 4am,” he said. “It should be banned. It’s just absolutely ridiculous. I started my mornings at 14 years old which is when you should start to implement that kind of training regime.”

In an interview with Telegraph Sport, Peaty also called for more “open thinking” in swimming culture and, as he decides whether to swim on until the Los Angeles Olympics, said that he needed to feel happy and valued within the domestic system.

Peaty’s coach, Mel Marshall, who has also guided Luke Greenbank and Anna Hopkin to Olympic medals, has just departed the British coaching system to join Swimming Australia, and Peaty also questioned how his mentor had been treated.

Talking candidly on Paris preparations, Peaty said that he would never again stay in an athletes’ village after catching Covid prevented him from joining Michael Phelps as the only male swimmer to win a hat-trick of golds in the same event.

Peaty had to settle for silver by just 0.02sec and, although he expected to continue for at least another Olympic cycle to 2028, he wanted to see change, particularly in the approach to the youngest athletes.

Focus on ‘short-term results’

“There is a reason why 70 per cent of people, all the way up to 15 years old, drop off swimming and don’t do it again,”  Peaty said. “It’s because it hasn’t changed. The coaches haven’t got the amount of support and knowledge to show the long-term vision… because a coach in this country gets all their validation and gratification from success.

“Yes, be competitive. Yes, win races. And, yes, work hard. [But] we need to protect them [the swimmers] in that youth age. Enjoy it as much as you can – a few times a week – and it should all be fun-based.

“If you look at how Aquatics GB is funded, mostly by UK Sport every four years… you’re looking for results every four years. It’s like the general election… trying to get results in the short-term.

“I completely understand that but we also need to invest in the eight years and the 12 years. I’m sure we are, but we need to be looking at a very healthy approach to those nine-year-olds, 10-year-olds, 11-year-olds coming through. I look forward to having those conversations, especially those domestic conversations in Aquatics GB, of ‘how can we retain those athletes?’”

Peaty runs his own AP Race Clinics for children and, despite becoming such a ruthless winner, believes that a results-focused model at a young age runs counter to what is best. “We are trying to protect that age group to make sure they don’t burn out by the time they are 14 and 15,” he said.

“Everything we do is about excitement and enjoyment. I think we [the UK] have been a bit restricted with that open-thinking culture. I think we still need to move in the right direction on that.”

‘Swimming Australia must have shown more value to Mel’

It is all relevant to Peaty’s own decision about continuing in the sport. Marshall’s departure to Australia is clearly a huge blow. Peaty will turn 30 next month and she has been coaching him daily for more than half of his life, having spotted him at a club session in Derby when he was 14.

“Swimming Australia must have shown more value to Mel, I guess,” Peaty said. “Me and Mel have been on this very unique journey. I would always rely on support from Mel, and have a second opinion, but I have got a son in this country. I don’t think I’ll be able to train anywhere else long-term. I’m a very proud athlete, I love the Union Jack. At the same time, I really want to make sure that I’m in a place where I’m happy and valued.

“I don’t want to speak too much on Mel’s journey and why she potentially didn’t feel that, but I know now she is in a very happy place and very excited for her journey going forward and hopefully, God willing, I’ll be able to find that as well.

“A lot of that was in the [Olympic] debrief… about value, especially within the organisation. The last few months have been about processing what happened – what went right, what went wrong. I live in the present. I don’t really take much from the past other than the lessons.”

One such lesson surrounds the immediate preparations before the Olympic races. The Team GB swimmers were in a holding camp in Reims before travelling into the athletes’ village in Paris on the Tuesday before competition. Peaty then had his first heat on Saturday morning, the semi-final on Saturday evening, and the final on Sunday.

“I’m still a little bit disappointed with some of the decisions that were made,” he said. “I have reflected that back to the team. I think some of the best teams in the world now have got to find a way to make sure that, in four years’ time, illness and injury are mitigated at all costs.

“When you bring tens of thousands of athletes, plus support staff, and media, and catering [together], you have got interactions with hundreds of people. You have got to be a little bit more clever.

“There’s no animosity there – those decisions were made because that was the right call at the time – it’s got to be a positive experience and learning curve and obviously we’ve all got to do a little bit better next time.”

‘I’d be looking to go outside of the Olympic village’

And what would he change about an Olympic village? “I wouldn’t even go there now – the next Games, I’d be looking to go outside of the village and minimise risk,” Peaty said. “Everything we do is about making the best of the opportunity every single day, making the best of the training, making the best of the nutrition, recovery and sleep, so why would we change that when it comes down to the actual performance week?”

Peaty first felt ill on the Friday before racing twice on Saturday and not feeling right. He felt a major deterioration for Sunday’s final and was then bed-ridden for the three days after. He swam faster in the semi-final than what was required to win the final, and the difference between gold and silver came down to the narrow window of infection. Peaty, though, does not seem consumed by the agonising nature of his first major Olympic or World Championship defeat. And, having since become engaged to girlfriend Holly Ramsay, he is not expecting to end his swimming career on a silver.

“I’m a man who just believes that everything happens for a reason,” he said. “I have so many positives as well from the Paris journey. A lot of people come up to me and go, ‘happy retirement’. People think it’s the end of the journey. I don’t know what the next four years are going to look like, and it may be, but I also don’t think it will be.

“Like any athlete that has gone through three Olympics, going for four and maybe more, you have got to take a year off and really recalibrate… identify who you really are. Obviously, the Commonwealth Games are in Glasgow in 2026 – is that something I do or not? It’s all up in the air, but it is getting closer to a little more clarity. For me, now, I look at the appealing championships. [And] I don’t do anything for less than first place.”

Adam Peaty drives the CUPRA Born VZ, the brand’s high-performance and most powerful fully electric hatch. For more information visit _www.cupraofficial.co.uk