Adam Peaty experienced an awkward moment at the start of his career.(Image: Jari Pestelacci/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)
Adam Peaty suffered an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction on the “biggest race of his life”.
The legendary Olympian won the silver medal in the 100m breaststroke on Sunday, missing out on gold by just 0.02 seconds. It brought his medal tally to three gold medals and three silver medals across three Olympic Games.
But it was earlier in his career when the up-and-coming athlete experienced one of his more embarrassing moments. Peaty, 29, says he was at a major must-win juniors race when his swimming trunks let him down.
Speaking on the Sporting Misadventures podcast with Sir Chris Hoy, he explained: “I’ve had a lot of things happen to me but one of the worst was at European juniors. For context that was the biggest race of my life so I’d prepared all season for this and I was like 17, I think I was at this point.
“I get onto the blocks and I’m like okay, my 50m went horrendous, my 200m went horrendous, I’ve got win this race because there’s two Brits who have qualified ahead of me.
Adam Peaty in the 100m breaststroke on Sunday.(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
“I’ve got to beat their time, at this point you could only have two Brits in the final, so I’ve got to beat my own teammates to get that spot. I got on the block, I’m ready, I was physically primed, mentally primed to go and get it.
“And I’d stretched a little bit too far on the block, and baring in mind the crowd were behind me, my trunks ripped right down the a***, like literally split right down the middle.
“I was like firstly ‘why, why has this happened’ and secondly, ‘what do I do about it’. My team manager comes down with this tiny pair of Speedos that aren’t even mine, like a training trunk, a g-string and throws them and says ‘put these on and you’ve got to race’.”
Adam Peaty narrowly missed out on a gold medal at the Olympic Games (Image: Getty Images)
Peaty only started taking swimming seriously when he was aged 17. He has previously admitted to having a lightbulb moment during the 2012 London Olympics.
He told the Guardian he was preparing for a night out to “get drunk in a field or something stupid like that” when he saw his friend Chris Benson, just eight months his senior, had qualified the semi-finals in Peaty’s favourite event, the 100m breaststroke.
Peaty described it as a “what am I doing in life” moment. Since then he has broken world records 14 times – currently holding the honour in the 50 metre and 100 metre breaststroke – becoming the first male to swim 26 seconds for the 50 metre breaststroke and the 100m in under 57 seconds.
