While the attention on Adam Ramsay-Peaty has not wavered, the athlete himself is much changed.
It marks two years since the 31-year-old narrowly missed out on a third consecutive 100m breaststroke Olympic gold at Paris 2024, and while he will be back in the pool at a major championships this summer, his life looks completely different.
Now married and expecting a child in early December with model Holly Ramsay-Peaty, daughter of Gordon Ramsay, the swimmer has also relocated to London for training and to be nearer the in-laws.
With those changes have come their own share of tabloid drama, but this matured version of Ramsay-Peaty would prefer to take any of the expectation that comes with being a big name and do the talking in the pool at Glasgow 2026.
“Pressure can be given to anyone, but it’s probably best in my hands because the more pressure I’m under, the better I perform,” he said.
“At the same time, you need a strategy for managing the noise and we probably haven’t done that as well as we could, but I’ll make sure the swimming does the talking.
“We can’t control every variable in life, but I can stand behind the blocks and not really care about what people’s opinions are.
“Being at peace with a 100m or 50m breaststroke race is a beautiful place to be. Nothing else matters in that moment. That’s the beauty of sport. If you can find that state of mind, it’s an incredible place to be.
“That’s the Adam people should see – the racer. Everything else is my private life.”
The spotlight will shine brightly for different reasons when he travels up to Glasgow for the first championships since Paris 2024.
With gymnast Max Whitlock ruled out of Team England’s efforts in the Scottish second city, Ramsay-Peaty will likely find himself as the leading face of his nation.
And while it is not a new position for a man who has led British swimming’s efforts for the best part of a decade, his new outlook is also playing its part in shaping his role at a fourth Commonwealth Games.
“As one of the older athletes on the team, you’ve got a chance to share experiences, but you’ve also got a duty of care towards the younger swimmers,” he said.
“Not everyone is going to race how they want to. Some will swim out of their skin and others will have a few shockers. That’s just sport.
“Being a father has enabled me not just to sympathise because I’ve been through it, but to empathise if someone’s experience is different.
“The love and kindness I can show now is very different to the person I was from 2014 onwards.”
Setting aside ego cannot be easy for one of the best athletes of a generation.
The three-time Olympic gold medallist was struggling with coronavirus and, self-admittedly, some complacency when he narrowly missed out in the French capital.
But at his first championships since, this new version of Ramsay-Peaty is ready to open the chapter on his end goal of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
“I want these Commonwealth Games to be a springboard and to come away confident in my ability to race the best in the world,” said the 31-year-old.
“Paris 2024 was bittersweet. I’d spent 18 months getting back after the breakdown and a difficult period in 2023. I was in a great place physically, but then I caught Covid just before the championships.
“Now it’s about putting that right. Did ego play a part? Did complacency play a part in 2024? Potentially. But now it’s about bringing everything back down, focusing on the details and enhancing the performance.
“As an athlete, I see the sport completely differently now. I don’t see success as medals any more. That’s not defeatist, it’s probably the opposite.
“Success for me is coming away from Glasgow knowing I’ve done absolutely everything I possibly could to finish as high as I can. If I look after the process, the outcome will take care of itself.”
By anyone else’s standards, Paris 2024 would not have been a failure. Ramsay-Peaty won Olympic silver, just 0.02 seconds behind Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi.
But with six Olympic medals, eight world titles, 16 European titles and four Commonwealth Games titles, normal has never been Ramsay-Peaty’s playing field.
And through a decade of success that has seen him break 14 world records, the Commonwealth Games continue to play a formative role in what comes next.
“If my career was a book, the Commonwealth Games would be very definitive chapters,” he explained.
“Now we’re towards the back of the book and I know that, so I want to make sure the book is written the way I want it.
“I’d like to get to Glasgow as a full-circle moment from my first one in 2014, when I beat Cameron van der Burgh, and see what we can come away with.”
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Sportsbeat
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