From Glasgow 2014 to Glasgow 2026, Adam Ramsay-Peaty’s career has come full circle.
“I think it’ll make a nice chapter in a book one day,” the British swimming superstar tells Olympics.com in an exclusive interview ahead of the Commonwealth Games, which start on 23 July.
“I started in Glasgow as a boy and now I’m a man. There’s been so much in between that I can’t even start to comprehend!”
It was at the Commonwealth Games in the Scottish city 12 years ago where Ramsay-Peaty announced himself to the world.
Aged only 19, he was competing at his first senior long-course international event. Ramsay-Peaty won gold in the 100m breaststroke in a then Commonwealth record of 58.94, shocking London 2012 Olympic champion Cameron van der Burgh of South Africa.
“Your first Games, you’re obviously a young buck that’s trying to make a name for himself,” says the 31-year-old Team England athlete.
“It was a moment of nervousness because I knew I worked hard, I knew I could be the best breaststroker in the world at that point, but you don’t really have anything to back that up.
“But by winning gold, I think that was the first time where I realised that I could be an Olympic champion one day. Not saying it was going to be [Rio] 2016 at that point, but it was just a great stepping stone for me.”
Highs and lows at Commonwealth Games
Since then, Ramsay-Peaty has had a complicated relationship with the Commonwealth Games.
At Gold Coast 2018, he defended his 100m breaststroke title, but finished second to Van der Burgh in the 50m, his first defeat over the distance since the Games four years earlier.
Then at Birmingham 2022, Ramsay-Peaty – who had rushed back from a broken foot – suffered an even bigger shock when he finished fourth in the 100m, ending an eight-year unbeaten run in the event. However, he responded to that surprise loss by winning the 50m.
“The Commonwealth Games always tests me,” admits the three-time Olympic champion.
“In 2018, obviously you’re gutted because you’re the world record holder (in the 50m breaststroke), you shouldn’t lose. But for me, that also allowed me to train and go back to it.
“Four months later, I broke the world record in the 100m. So, that came at the right time, and I’m glad it did happen.
“2022 was a very different story. I broke my foot and I tried too hard. I lost the 100m, which is my baby.
“That one led me to a breakdown and really looking at the purpose of why I do it. By that point, I’d already lost the purpose, and you never want to get behind the blocks and not want to do it.”
Swimming in his 30s
Ramsay-Peaty is now preparing for his fourth Commonwealth Games, in what will be his first major international event since Paris 2024.
In total, he has won four golds and three silvers from his previous three Commonwealth appearances. Now he could become the first Team England swimmer to win four consecutive gold medals at the Games.
“Oh wow, I didn’t know that,” he replies when told of that statistic by Olympics.com.
“I also realised the other day that I haven’t won the 100 and 50 together at a Commonwealth Games, so it would be nice to come back with that.”
Ramsay-Peaty had considered retirement following his pain in Paris, when he missed out 100m breaststroke gold by just 0.02 seconds after he contracted COVID-19.
But he returned to the pool last year with the aim of winning gold in both the 50m and 100m at Los Angeles 2028.
Ramsay-Peaty proved his form at the 2026 Aquatics GB Swimming Championships in April, when he won the 50m title in 26.64 and 100m in 58.97.
He was forced to withdraw from last month’s Sette Colli Trophy in Rome after suffering a minor finger injury, but is now gearing up for Glasgow.
“For me, I race well when I’ve got emotion,” admits Ramsay-Peaty. “So I want to use that emotion to prove to myself that I can still do it at this age, that I’ve still got it. And why not in four years again after this?
“The sport is getting older. I think people have dared to go a little bit older and obviously now the 50m has been added into the Olympic Games as well. Who knows when it’s going to stop?”
read more: https://www.olympics.com/en/news/adam-ramsay-peaty-exclusive-interview-glasgow-2026-commonwealth-games-swimming-100m-breaststroke
