Adam Peaty heartache as Olympic ace misses gold in Paris but secures silver | Other | Sport

Adam Peaty heartbreakingly missed out on Olympic gold in the men’s 100m breaststroke final, taking a joint-silver medal. The Team GB star missed out by 0.02 seconds to surprise winner Nicolo Martinenghi from Italy.

Peaty was swimming for three consecutive gold medals in the Olympic 100m breaststroke. He came first at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2021.

The 29-year-old’s remarkable journey to get to this point is well documented, and at one point it seemed he may cap it in the most perfect way. He led the race heading into the final quarter with Martinenghi and Nic Fink bearing down on him.

But it was the impressive Martinenghi who reached the end of the pool the quickest. The 24-year-old finished in 59.03 seconds. Peaty touched the wall at 59.05 – with Fink finishing in exactly the same time.

A tearful Peaty told the BBC afterwards that his emotion was pure happiness, not devastation. He said: “It’s been a very long way back and look at the score, you’d have never dreamed it.

“I gave it my all and executed it as well as I could. It didn’t matter what the time said on the score. I’m already a winner.

“I’m not crying because I’ve come second, I’m crying because it’s taken so much to get here. It’s incredibly hard to win it once, then to win it again, and again.

“I’m trying to find new ways to win it. I can race the best in the world and can come joint-second. In my heart I’ve won and these are happy tears. You can’t be upset about that.”

Peaty was extremely gracious after the race. He went straight over to Martinenghi to congratulate the new Olympic champion. After conducting his post-race interview with the BBC, the Briton once again caught the eye of his rival, who was speaking to Italian broadcasters.

The duo shared a warm embrace before Peaty returned pool-side.

Peaty was keen to remind viewers at home that this was his sixth Olympic medal – three golds and three silvers. His success takes Team GB’s total medal tally to four for the Paris Olympics.

Kimberley Woods secured bronze in the women’s kayak singles. That came after a successful opening day in which Scarlett Mew Jensen and Yasmin Harper won bronze in the women’s synchronised 3m springboard. Cyclist Anna Henderson then took advantage of some chaos in the women’s time trial to snatch Great Britain’s first silver.