Adam Peaty Won’t Return for London Roar at ISL Grand Final
Adam Peaty won’t be part of the London Roar’s squad for this week’s International Swimming League Grand Final.
Peaty has yet to swim this season for the Roar, and general manager Rob Woodhouse confirmed that Peaty will not be back in time for the finale this weekend in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
“Adam Peaty will not be joining the London Roar team for the grand final this weekend,” Woodhouse said in a statement. “While we kept the door open just in case, we have known all along that Adam was going to sit out this ISL season and take a long break from competitive racing with his focus being the 2022 long course season and beyond.”
Peaty had a sensational Tokyo Olympics, repeating as the men’s 100 breaststroke champ. He also helped Great Britain end a century-long relay drought by winning gold in the mixed medley relay and silver in the men’s medley relay. He owns the long-course world records in the 50 and 100 breast.
Part of his post-Tokyo hiatus was participation in the British reality show, Strictly Come Dancing, in which he finished ninth in Series 19. That kept him occupied from September through November, with the thinking that he could rejoin the Roar afterward. That, however, hasn’t happened.
Peaty won the 50 breast and 100 breast on three occasions each in 2020 for the Roar, including claiming the 100 breast in the 2020 Grand Final. He set the world record at 55.41 in the 100 breast, since downed by Ilya Shymanovich. The Roar finished third in the 2020 ISL Grand Final.
This season, the Roar haven’t won a men’s breaststroke race. Shymanovich is the unquestioned favorite in the Grand Final for Energy Standard. But many of the leading men’s breaststrokers in 2021 won’t be at the Grand Final. Team Iron’s Erik Persson, who won the 200 breast six times, is one, as are the Aqua Centurions duo of Arno Kamminga (two 200 breast wins, three 100 breast wins) and Nicolo Martinenghi (seven wins in the 50 breast).
“From a team perspective, we’ve had Ross Murdoch and Sam Williamson doing a great job in the breaststroke events all season for us,” Woodhouse said. “They are just two of thirty incredible athletes we have on our roster this season and together they have become an incredible team.”
London is in the Grand Final for the third straight season. They’ll take on the same troika of teams as the previous three seasons: Energy Standard, Cali Condors and LA Current.
Ross Murdoch and Sam Williams have not been doing a great job. They got a total of 3 points in one of the matches. They are almost certainly the worst male breaststrokers in the final and will almost certainly be jackpotted by Shymanovich in the 50 and 100.
The Roar really messed up by hinting that Peaty would be swimming in the final when they knew all along that wasn’t true. Just misleading people on purpose to drum up hope. I don’t know whether it was their decision or ISL made them do it (as I know ISL likes to keep information under wraps) but ti was just really poor judgement.