Adam Peaty Drops 58.97 100 Breast For Fastest Swim Since Paris

2026 AQUATICS GB SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

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Adam Peaty surprised himself on the opening night of racing at the 2026 Aquatics GB Swimming Championships in London.

After leading a group of three swimmers sub-1:00 in the prelims of the men’s 100 breast on Tuesday morning, clocking 59.30, Peaty stepped up and dipped under the 59-second barrier in the evening session, touching in 58.97.

The 31-year-old said he would’ve been happy with a swim in the 59-mid range, so given that he was a good half-second quicker than that, he seems to be on track to make some noise later this summer at the Commonwealth Games and European Championships.

“Coming into these championships, I just felt anything like 59-mid would be pretty good,” Peaty said post-race, according to Olympics.com. “I just said to myself, ‘what have I got to lose? And it was nothing, so why not give everything and risk it. And it worked out.”

The performance marks Peaty’s fastest swim since the semi-finals at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, where he clocked 58.86 to lead the field into the final, where he ultimately tied for silver in 59.05.

A few months before the 2024 Olympics, Peaty broke 58 seconds at the British Trials, clocking 57.94, which was his fastest swim since 2021.

His world record stands at 56.88, set in 2019, which no one has seriously approached since.

Peaty vaults himself up to #2 in the world this season with tonight’s swim, while Filip Nowacki and Max Morgan also broke into the top 10 from the final.

Nowacki, the 18-year-old who won the World Junior and European Junior titles in this event last year, clocked 59.39 to move into #4 in the world, just shy of his lifetime best of 59.20 set last August. He also re-breaks the British Age Record for 18-year-old boys, a mark he set in the prelims (59.83) to lower Peaty’s previous mark of 59.92 from 2013.

Morgan, also 18, set a new personal best of 59.56, improving on his mark of 59.93 from the 2025 World Juniors to rank 10th in the world this season.

“[We’ve] got some talented youngsters coming through the sport, especially in this event,” Peaty said, putting his arms around Nowacki and Morgan. “When I do retire one day, this event is safe in the world.”

Peaty still has a ways to go to get back to the 57.9 form we saw in April 2024, but it’s clear he’s on an upward trajectory again after sitting out of competition for the majority of 2025.