Adam Ramsay-Peaty broke down in tears after being forced to settle for a bronze medal in the men’s 100 metre breaststroke final at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
The 31-year-old was pipped by Australia’s Sam Williamson and 18-year-old Filip Nowacki of Jersey in a race he had dominated for eight years before shockingly finishing out of the medals in Birmingham four years ago.
Since the 2022 Games, Ramsay-Peaty has taken time out to protect his mental health and also endured a high-profile family schism following his marriage to Holly Ramsay, daughter of the celebrity chef Gordon, in December.
Ramsay-Peaty reached into the crowd to kiss his pregnant wife’s tummy shortly after the end of his race, then said: “It’s hard because I know how hard I work. I know the s**t I’ve been through, which is no fault of my own, but it does take its toll.
“I’m not crying because it’s bronze instead of gold. I’m crying because I know I am better than that. I feel like I couldn’t have put any more in and that’s where it hurts, because I’m like ‘what’s the point of all the metres every day, what’s the point of being exhausted all the time’?
“‘What’s the point of having to say no to family events because you can’t go to training’? It has to mean something and for me it has to be human excellence and that is not excellence for me. So that’s the emotion that is unfortunately coming out.”
Ramsay-Peaty, who is still the world record holder in the event, trailed in almost half a second behind Williamson, while Nowacki repelled his late surge to take a famous silver. The result was all the more surprising given the way in which Ramsay-Peaty had surged through his heats on Friday.
Cheered on by his fiancee Holly in the stands at the Tollcross International Swimming Centre, Ramsay-Peaty was in third place at the halfway stage and could not make up the deficit, his time of 59.65 seconds well behind Williamson’s 59.17.
It marked another chapter in Ramsay-Peaty’s increasingly tumultuous Commonwealth Games career. His win as a 19-year-old back in Glasgow in 2014 began a period of almost total dominance of the event, a streak that came to an end with a fourth-placed finish in Birmingham.
The 31-year-old, who will get another chance to win a fifth career Commonwealth Games gold medal in the 50m event that begins on Sunday, reflected on the touching moment with his wife.
“She’s always going to be proud of me and I think as a father, it doesn’t matter if you come home with a gold, as long as you come home with a teddy,” smiled Ramsay-Peaty.
“The emotion is something I’m always going to carry and I’m never going to be afraid to show weakness because it’s so important in making stronger people, making stronger men, stronger fathers, stronger husbands, and it’s a realisation of how hard I work.”
England’s William Ellard and Georgia Sheffield both set new Games records as they won the respective men’s and women’s S14 200m freestyle finals. Sheffield pipped her team-mate Poppy Maskill, who took silver.
England’s Ollie Morgan won a silver medal in the men’s 50m backstroke final, finishing behind South Africa’s Pieter Coetze. England’s mixed 4x100m freestyle relay squad took silver behind Australia, with Wales in third.
