What injury did Adam Peaty have before Commonwealth Games? England swimmer returns at Birmingham 2022

Adam Peaty shook off a few nerves on his return from injury to top the timesheet in the men’s 100 metres breaststroke heats and cruise into Saturday night’s semi-finals.

Peaty missed last month’s World Championship due to injury.

But despite that he showed no persisting issues in his first outing at the Commonwealth Games.

Here is all you need to know:

What was Adam Peaty’s injury?

The swimmer fractured a bone in his foot in a freak training accident in May.

It caused him to miss the World Championship’s in June.

But he managed to recover in time for the Commonwealth Games.

What has he said?

Speaking after his heats earlier on Saturday (30 July), the three-time Olympic gold medallist said: “It’s blown the cobwebs out.

“I was nervous because I haven’t raced in so long. That was my third race this year, I’ve normally done about 20 by now. It is what it is.

“(The foot) is good. I can dive so that’s good. It felt a lot faster than the 59.9, but, hey ho, that’s the timing board, isn’t it?

“I didn’t really need to do anything, I saw the heats come through and I was like, ‘You know what, it’s going to be wasted energy going fast this morning,’ so we’ll see how we go tonight.”

Who is Adam Peaty?

Adam Peaty is a British swimmer who was born on 28th December 1994.

He won the gold medal in the 100 metre breaststroke at the 2016 and 2020 Olympics, the first by a male British swimmer in 24 years. He is the current holder of the world record in 50 metre and 100 metre breaststroke events.

Peaty is an eight-time World Champion, a sixteen-time European Champion and a three-time Commonwealth Champion.

He has broken world records 13 times and currently holds three world records in the 100 metre breaststroke (long course and short course) and the 50 metre breaststroke, becoming the first man to swim under 26 seconds for the 50 metre breaststroke and the first to swim the 100 metre breaststroke under both 58 and 57 seconds.

When did Adam Peaty start swimming?

Peaty as a child developed a fear of water and being put in a bath after his older brothers mischievously told him sharks could get in via the plughole.

At the age of four, Peaty and his friend both went on their first swimming lesson together. It was at this swimming lesson where he lost the fear.

Peaty first joined Dove Valley Swimming Club in Uttoxeter when he was nine, and started to win races and setting club records by the time he was 12. When he was 14, a friend took Peaty to join City of Derby Swimming Club, but the coach at the club, former Olympic swimmer Melanie Marshall, was initially not impressed by Peaty’s performance in the freestyle and put him in the slow lane with younger girls.

However, Marshall spotted his natural ability in the style he has come to master, helping to hone a chiselled 6ft 3in frame that is able to power adroitly through the water and leave all his rivals struggling to keep up.

It was his mother Caroline who woke up at 4.30am every morning to take the youngest of her four children from their home in Uttoxeter to training.

Peaty has credited his father Mark for instilling a relentless work ethic that only surfaced in a sliding doors moment while watching London 2012, which put the then unfocused 17-year-old on the right path.