Three-time Olympic champion and world-record holder Adam Peaty will be one of Team GB’s most recognisable faces at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
But this summer's competition - which will be LIVE on talkSPORT in July - will mark a comeback after a tough few years for the British swimming great, in and out of the pool.
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Peaty rose to prominence at Rio 2016 with a world record in the men’s 100 metre breaststroke, before becoming the first British swimmer to defend an Olympic title at Tokyo 2020.
That was topped off with a gold medal in the mixed 4x100m medley relay in Japan.
But Peaty will cut a different figure in Paris this summer, having gone through a self-described 'three years of hell'.
His remarkable climb back to the summit of swimming could be topped off with yet another Olympic gold medal.
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Overcoming a fear of water
Peaty first joined a swimming club when he was nine years old and soon started to win races. But he wasn’t always a natural in the water. In fact, after his older brothers told him that sharks could come into the bath through the plughole, Peaty had an intense phobia of water.
"He didn't like the water when he was younger," Peaty’s grandmother Mavis Williams told BBC News in 2016. "He used to scream every time he got in the bath. And when his mum used to take him to the pool he used to scream there.”
Peaty eventually got over his fear of water when he was taken on a swimming lesson with his friend. He moved to the City of Derby Swimming Club when he was 14 and was trained by former Olympic swimmer Melanie Marshall. Peaty was initially put in a slow lane due to his underwhelming freestyle technique, but that all changed when Marshall saw his breaststroke.
With large hands, big feet, a superhuman cardiovascular system and hyper-mobile knees and ankles, Peaty is built to be a world-class breaststroke swimmer. Indeed, his achievements in the pool means he is now regarded as one of the best male breaststroke swimmers of all time.
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Enjoying success in the pool
Peaty first made a splash in 2014, shattering the 50m breaststroke world record at the European Aquatics Championships. He then earned a 100m breaststroke gold medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
More wins followed at the 2015 World Aquatics Championships, where Peaty won a gold medal in the 50m and 100m breaststroke races, setting a world record in the latter event.
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Up next was the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, where Peaty became Britain’s first male Olympic swimming champion since Adrian Moorhouse in 1988. More gold medals followed and Peaty is now an eight-time world champion, four-time Commonwealth Games champion and three-time Olympic gold medallist.
He still holds world records in the 50m and 100m breaststroke events, becoming the first man to swim under 26 seconds in the 50m and the first to swim under 57 seconds in the 100m.
Peaty should be a clear favourite to earn a third successive Olympic gold medal in the 100m breaststroke, but mental health struggles means he is only just returning to the pool after a hiatus from swimming.
Getting through 'three years of hell'
In February 2023, Peaty started crying during a training session, getting out of the pool to tell Marshall that he was suffering from burnout and could not continue. He later admitted he had been struggling with depression and alcohol problems, which had been worsened by a number of factors.
Just under a year earlier, Peaty fractured his foot and was forced to withdraw from the World Aquatics Championships in June 2022. He returned to compete in the 2022 Commonwealth Games, but finished fourth in the 100m breaststroke. The disappointing result ended an impressive unbeaten streak in the event which stretched back to 2014.
It was also around this time that Peaty separated from his partner and mother of his son, Eirianedd Munro.
The 29-year-old decided to take time away from swimming, only returning earlier this year at the World Aquatics Championships. He finished with a bronze medal in the 100m breaststroke.
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While a third-place finish may have been a devastating blow last year, Peaty has returned to swimming with a new mindset. This is in part inspired by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, father of Peaty’s partner, Holly.
“He’s an incredible energy to be around and an incredible person to have that guidance from,” Peaty told The Times about Gordon Ramsay. “I take a lot from that and from the professionalism he has every single day with a relentless pursuit.”
Peaty has been working with a psychiatrist as he emerges from 'three years of hell', while he has also credited his Christian faith with his successful recovery.
The British star secured a spot at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games with victory in the 100m breaststroke at the British Swimming Championships in April, and will now be raring to go in the French capital.
If he does top the podium once again, Peaty will become just the second swimmer to earn three Olympic gold medals in one individual event, following in the footsteps of the great Michael Phelps.
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But Peaty will likely be most proud of his journey to the Games, overcoming serious mental health challenges to get back into the pool.
The Olympics are on talkSPORT this summer, and you can tune in via our free online streaming service at talkSPORT.com