Olympic Swimming Top Races, No. 3: Adam Peaty Eyeing 100 Breaststroke Three-Peat Against Qin Haiyang
The Olympic swimming competition will begin Saturday, July 27, with the best swimmers in the world competing for medals in 28 individual races and seven relays over nine days of competition. Before that, Swimming World will count down the top-10 most anticipated races of the Games, where we can expect to find the best races and where the most decorated athletes will be racing for history.
- No. 10: Women’s 100 Butterfly
- No. 9: Men’s 400 Freestyle
- No. 8: Men’s 200 Butterfly
- No. 7: Men’s 100 Backstroke
- No. 6: Women’s 200 IM
- No. 5: Men’s 100 Butterfly
- No. 4: Women’s 800 Freestyle
One year ago, a new king of men’s breaststroke emerged as Qin Haiyang swept the 50, 100 and 200-meter events at the World Championships in Fukuoka. Qin smashed the world record over 200 meters while becoming history’s No. 2 performer in the 50 and 100. Those swims made him the instant favorite for double breaststroke gold at the Paris Olympics, but the man who owned a faster time in the shorter events, Adam Peaty, was on the way back.
Peaty has completed a limited slate of major competitions since the Tokyo Olympics, and his previous dominance has been missing. At the 2022 Commonwealth Games, he missed the podium entirely in the 100 breast. He won bronze medals at the 2022 Short Course World Championships and again when he returned to global long course competition this February at the World Championships in Doha. A foot injury kept him out of the 2022 Worlds while mental health concerns prompted his withdrawal from the 2023 edition of the meet where Qin emerged as a star.
But Peaty reasserted himself at the British Championships in April, clocking 57.94 for the only sub-58 performance of the year thus far. He is just a quarter-second behind the best effort Qin has ever clocked (57.69). Qin, meanwhile, has the No. 2 time of the year at 58.24 form the Chinese National Championships. These men finishing in the top-two in some order is the likely outcome for the Olympic final.
Adam Peaty will have to contend with Qin Haiyang in the 100 breaststroke final in Paris — Photo Courtesy: Andrea Masini / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
Peaty also has a share of history at stake as he aims to become the second male swimmer to win three consecutive gold medals in one event. Previously, Michael Phelps won four consecutive golds in the 200 IM (2004-2008-2012-2016) and three straight in the 100 butterfly (2004-2008-2012) along with three non-consecutive gold medals in the 200 fly. Peaty will try to match Phelps in the 100 breast while achieving an honor so many men have fallen just short of.
In the 21st century alone, Australians Kieran Perkins (2000) and Grant Hackett (2008) have settled for silver medals in the 1500 freestyle while pursuing their third gold medal. Also at the 2008 Games, Pieter van den Hoogenband fell to fifth in the 100 free while going for his third straight gold. Three attempts at three-peats were felled at the London Games before Phelps topped the 200 IM final: Phelps missed the podium in the 400 IM, as did Japan’s Kosuke Kitajima in the 100 breast, while South Africa’s Chad le Clos touched out Phelps for gold in the 200 fly.
Peaty, now 29, retains a real chance of coming through and securing his place among the sport’s all-time greats in Paris, with a flair for the dramatic in big moments likely to show through in an Olympic final.
Behind the top-two, there are plenty of men who could sneak onto the podium, led by the duo that joined Peaty on the podium in Tokyo. The Netherlands’ Arno Kamminga, the silver medalist three years ago, is one of three men (along with Peaty and Qin) to ever swim below 58 seconds while Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi won bronze in that Olympic final and a world title a year later. Kamminga, Martinenghi and the United States’ Nic Fink all tied for silver at the World Championships in 2023 while Fink came out on top of a tight final in Doha (with Qin absent).
Russian Evgenii Somov will compete in Paris as a neutral athlete after he blasted a time of 58.72 at the Atlanta Classic in May. China’s Sun Jiajun, Australia’s Sam Williamson and Germany’s Melvin Imoudu complete the list of nine swimmers who have broken 59 this year. Also scheduled to compete as a neutral in Paris is Belarus’ Ilya Shymanovich, the short course world-record holder in the event.
