Two-hundredths of a second. A few small millimetres. A fractionally mistimed final lunge for the line. Waking up with a sore throat on your four-yearly date with destiny.
It is on these margins that a lifetime of preparation can turn and, after years spent being so much better than the rest of the world, Adam Peaty finally has the agonising taste of Olympic defeat.
Not that it really looked much that way during a tearful poolside embrace with his girlfriend Holly Ramsay, mum Caroline and young son George after receiving a silver medal following what his mentor Mel Marshall has called an emotional “tsunami”.
Peaty continued to claim that there was victory in simply competing at this level again but, after leading through much of the race and only losing on the final touch for the wall, it would still be surprising if there is not some lingering regret.
“I touched the wall and I truly believed that I had got it,” he said. He talked about an “interesting” debrief and, while the now more measured and balanced Peaty will emphasise the positives, he will also be honest to locate the many ‘what ifs’.
Like not waking up ill and, in a race that had always looked certain to be decided by fine margins, losing precious ground at the very start and the very finish of the race.
Blindsided by Martinenghi
Having trailed in second at the 25m turn after labouring off the blocks, Peaty did then overhaul his Chinese rival Qin Haiyang in what was expected to be a big head-to-head showdown, and he looked for all the world to be swimming triumphantly into the history books.
But that did not allow for the Italian, Nicolò Martinenghi, in lane seven, who timed his swim better and literally passed Peaty in the final finger-tip reach for the wall.
Peaty later acknowledged that it was probably significant he was out of immediate view in lane four, with the Briton just seeming to marginally lose momentum in the final metres to tie with the American Nic Fink for second.
And, in that split second, the chance to join only Michael Phelps on a hat-trick of individual Olympic swimming titles and become only the second Briton with just Ben Ainslie to win an individual Olympic title three times had slipped away.
Philosophical in defeat
Peaty was refusing to sound anything but magnanimous after the race but the frustration at missing what would also have been Team GB’s first gold medal of these Games will surely be compounded by what was ultimately required to win.
Martinenghi’s winning time of 59.03sec was more than two seconds off Peaty’s world record and well over a second slower than the Briton had himself managed earlier this year in winning the British trials. It was also slower than Peaty had swam when he felt rather more healthy in winning the semi-final 24 hours earlier.
Peaty shed numerous tears in the aftermath, largely probably in relief that it was all over, and he repeatedly stressed that it was an emotion explained by what it had taken just to get on the start line rather than the result. There was an admirable lack of self-pity and bitterness.
It is, after all, only 18 months since Peaty says that sport had broken him. He had been dealing with bouts of depression, time out with a broken foot and separation from his partner Eiri Munro when, one morning during training in Loughborough, his goggles filled with tears.
Back from the brink
He told Marshall that he had enough and he walked out of the pool, not knowing whether he would be back. They decided that he should take baby steps back. That meant not committing to the demands of competitive swimming again, but “keeping in touch” with the water still and, in swimming as much for mental health as a competitive edge, keeping his options open.
In that five-month period of reflection, there were two seismic changes in attending church more regularly and finding a new life partner in Holly, the daughter of the celebrity chef, Gordon.
It has been a more relaxed Peaty during the comeback and, despite losing plenty more times than he had experienced in the previous decade, he has certainly seemed happier.
It will be fascinating, then, to see what comes next. This was Peaty’s sixth Olympic medal and his place as Britain’s greatest swimmer is secure. But he also has a relentless drive for success and seems finally to have found a way of enjoying swimming while not allowing his entire wellbeing to be wrapped up in the result.
A long break from competitive action does feel post-Paris but, equally, do not be surprised if at some point between now 2028 we wake up one morning and hear that he is back training again.
Peaty proud but misses gold by tightest margin: As it happened
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