Latest news with #BritishSwimming
BBC News
14 hours ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Age no barrier as Peaty works towards new world record
Adam Peaty says age will not be a barrier as he attempts to break his own world records in preparation for a gold-medal raid at the Los Angeles three-time Olympic champion would become the oldest British swimmer to win gold if he was to add another title to his hoard at the age of 33 in will be looking to reclaim the 100m breaststroke crown, having finished 0.02secs short of making it three successive gold medals in the event when he was pipped for glory in Paris last the 50m breaststroke added to the schedule of sprint events in Los Angeles, Peaty says it will be "an exciting Games" for him as the world record holder over both distances."I'm going to try beat my world record along these next three years, just as a personal journey, but as you get older in these sprint events, you only get more experienced," he told BBC East Midlands Today."I want to show that just because you are older and just because people think you have reached your peak and are past your peak, that doesn't mean you can't win."You just need one good swim, and I'm clutching on to that. And hopefully we've got a lot more than just one good swim." Peaty had previously admitted he was not convinced he would carry on competing after an emotionally and physically draining silver-medal finish at Paris the multiple world, Olympic, European and Commonwealth Games gold medal winner now talks of "unfinished business" at the Games, having ended up in second place despite catching Covid-19."I finished that race and even though I was happy and felt I had a great performance, it wasn't enough for me to have that as my last race or one of my last races," he said."I prepared for Paris and didn't get what I wanted, so I have that in the back of my mind now. And sometimes you need that fuel, you need a loss to appreciate it and go for the win next time."That's not going to define who I am for my whole career. I just know there is so much more in there."Discovering what sort of swimmer he can be at 30 is something Peaty is doing with new coach Jamie Main at his new training base at Repton School in decision to leave Aquatic GB's performance centre at Loughborough University came after his long-time coach Mel Marshall decided to take a job in Australia."I was fortunate enough to have Mel as my coach for the last 15 years," Peaty said."We pioneered things, broke world records and won all these golds, and almost rewrote that stroke in terms of sprint breaststroke, which is incredible."But now the real challenge for me comes from growing in certain aspects of accountability, learning how to do it as an adult, how to do it as a father, how to do it faster. "Also working with Jamie and the coaches at Repton, with all the facilities here, how can we do it in the way we most love and in a way we thrive every single day?"It's a very different campaign, a very different mission this time around." 'Training smarter not harder' It is a mission that has started with Peaty being omitted from the group of 57 elite British swimmers being supported by Aquatics GB throughout has taken a break from competition, and while his rivals and compatriots are in Singapore for the World Aquatics Championships, he talks of being in "pre-season" and juggling a family holiday to Disney, planning his wedding with fiancée Holly Ramsay and training for his triathlon debut at the T100 in London next first real competitive focus after that will be the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships in London in April 2026 where he aims to qualify for next year's Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the European Championships in Paris."For my whole career, the past 20 years, it's been 'let's go hard and see what we get'. Go as fast as we can and hard as we can," Peaty said. "Beat the body down, then taper it and rest it so when you perform, you are going to swim out of your skin."We still need that and we still need to work extremely hard, but now it's a little bit more clever around my age."My recovery time is a little bit slower, but also at the moment my risk to injury is a little bit higher as well because I'm so busy doing everything else."There is no magic way to do anything as you get older, you just have to be a little bit smarter around the training and know that you can't be every single day at the wall because it's not how I want to train anymore. I want to train smarter."
BBC News
14-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
Memories of Droitwich Spa Lido that was more like a youth club
"We all went to the lido and that was where we let off our steam. We let off our energy. We went swimming. We went on the boards, went down the chute. We met girls."In 1962, connection between the young people of Droitwich Spa happened in physical space, where IRL was IPP - in a public pool. The town's lido was like a youth club, then... just a wet one. These were the days before tech tailored to toes. There was no heating. And at the centre of this cold water world was David Sparkes; a 13-year-old earning two shillings and ninepence an hour - about £2.88 in today's been sharing his memories. Milestones bring it on. The restored art deco attraction is celebrating its 90th year. Let's go back some of that way in Worcestershire, where young David has moved on from the "hanger room" (in which people used to hang up the clothes). He's become a lifeguard. And it was an offer he could not refuse - not at an extra threepence a week. In the summer, queues were "unbelievable", Mr Sparkes recalled of earning his money. "Sometimes we had to stop letting people in."Things were nippy, though. "In those days there was no heating," he said. "It was a cold pool. [The water] was literally out of the tap."He stayed there until 1973, qualified as a swimming teacher, and eventually became chief executive of British Swimming and the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) – now known as Swim England. A typical day at the lido in the 1960s and 70s started at 08:00 when staff tided up and wiped down tables, before things opened at 10:00. Swimmers were in the pool until about 20:00 in the summer, with the site staying open until those days, workers used a brass instrument to measure density of the water and how much salt was in it, and they added enough brine to replicate sea water."There was a pipe that came in from the brine pumping station which was at the back of the high street in those days, there still is, I think," Mr Sparkes said. It was while teaching that Mr Sparkes felt a pull towards more advanced roles within the field."I decided I wanted to become a coach so went to Birmingham University... got into coaching and moved away from teaching kids."Eventually I got more into regional swimming which landed me on to the ASA Committee."But now, in the summer of 2025, the focus is more on the Lido's opening of 1935. And it would be unfair to let things pass without making a splash. The anniversary is being marked with a summer of water-centred celebration, running from June to August. Follow BBC Hereford & Worcester on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
