BUDAPEST: With two golds and two world-records at the world championships, British breaststroke ace Adam Peaty has sparked a bout of ‘Peaty-mania’ in Budapest.
As expected, Hungary’s swimmers are roared on by the home crowd at the Duna Arena, but Peaty is the only non-Hungarian to be greeted by a similar ear-splitting din when he races.
“The arena here is absolutely crazy – obviously when a Hungarian walks out, there is a massive roar, but when I walked out I had that support as well and it’s great to see,” said Peaty.
With Michael Phelps now in retirement, Peaty is well on his way to becoming swimming’s next big superstar and attracts plenty of attention in Hungary’s capital.
As the reigning Olympic 100m champion, the 22-year-old underlined his status as British swimmings’ pin-up boy by winning both the 50m and 100m breaststroke golds in Budapest.
He produced two electrifying swims over 50 metres on Tuesday, breaking his own world-record by clocking 26.10 seconds in the morning’s heats and 25.95 in the evening’s semi-finals – the first man to duck under 26 seconds.
He backed that up with a victorious 25.99 in Wednesday’s final to underline his domination.
Peaty can finish with another medal in the men’s 4x100m medley relay which will close the world championships in Budapest on Sunday.
Videos of Peaty punishing his toned physique in training are scattered over the internet.
A video of a ‘Peaty push-up’ – where he pushes up hard enough to get his entire body airborne – has gone viral.
“It’s been incredible, the support I’ve had from back home and on social media has been mind-blowing,” said Peaty.
“I broke the first world record, then the second one, it has been flat-out amazing support which has carried me through the week. I have kids and their parents tweeting me trying to do a ‘Peaty press-up’, it’s great to see I am having that effect.” — AFP