2023 WORLD AQUATICS SWIMMING WORLD CUP – ATHENS
- Friday, October 13th – Sunday, October 15th
- Athens, Greece
- LCM (50m)
- Prelims 9:00am (EEST)/ 2:oo am (EDT)
- Finals 6:00 pm (EEST)/ 11:00 am (EDT)
- Meet Central
- Entries
- Live Results
Adam Peaty may not have earned a victory at the second stop of the World Cup series in Athens on Saturday, but his silver medal performance in the 50 breaststroke left the 28-year-old Brit feeling the most encouraged he has been in years.
Peaty reached the wall in a time of 26.89, a few tenths behind China’s Qin Haiyang (26.52) but faster than the 26.98 he produced for bronze at the first World Cup stop last weekend in Berlin. It was his fastest 50 breast time since his Commonwealth Games win last August, when he went 26.76 en route to the gold medal.
“For me, it’s a beautiful drop for me from this morning,” said Peaty, who went 27.30 in prelims. “The crowd is absolutely amazing, thank you Greece. We like to be racing in places where a lot of people have a lot of passion. Thank you for supporting us. This is the first race that I can say, ‘I am getting back after two years.’”
While Peaty compared his progress on the World Cup series to finding the path “halfway through the maze,” he kept the perspective that “tomorrow might be another dead end.” He placed 6th in the 100 breast (59.98) on Friday, slightly slower than his 59.85 from Berlin.
“Finding the path is like a maze: I try something new, and it’s a dead end, try something new and another dead end,” said Peaty, who owns the 50 breast world record at 25.95 from 2019. “Trying something new, we got halfway down the maze. Today was halfway down the maze, but tomorrow might be another dead end. Being a mature athlete, one that has been in this sport for 18 years, it does take maturity.”
“Swimming has been very good for me and swimming has been good to me,” Peaty added. “Sometimes it can be tough for me, but I also take a lot of pleasure in swimming. World Aquatics has done an incredible job in organizing these events in Europe. If we can carry this passion around the world, the sport is in a very good place.”
“I am just trying to race with the best in the world and of course, I am happy when I can win my event,” said Qin, who swam the slowest winning time in the 50 breast across Worlds, WUGs, Asian Games, and the Berlin World Cup. “I knew that they would challenge me, and I’m happy with the race. I just want to keep getting better.”
In other quotes after the first two days of action in Athens, Swedish sprint star Sarah Sjostrom said she doesn’t measure success by whether or not she hits a lifetime best — anytime the 30-year-old world record holder goes under 25 seconds in the 50 butterfly, she says it feels like a personal best.
“It’s amazing to have this World Cup Record,” Sjostrom said after lowering her own standard to 24.97. “Every time I go under 25 it feels like a personal best for me. I am super happy about this race. I’m super excited to swim under 25 seconds. Both yesterday and today I felt really good in my morning swims. Yesterday I wasn’t able to improve that much in the event. There were a few technical details that I needed to correct. Today I felt that I did what I needed to do. I had a good breakout and a good finish. I trusted that I get a lot of power without pushing too much water. I felt great today, it was really cool. I appreciated the Athens spectators tonight.”
Yeah, I’m thinking were back. 55.9 all day.
He is still operating at more than 3 seconds off his PB which suggests the road ahead will be very tough. He has spent allot of time since Tokyo out of the water on various forced/unforced breaks and whilst his 50 speed remains very decent, it seems he has lost allot of speed endurance over the 100m.
Let’s see if he can challenge Qin next year. Good luck to him.
It seems he still has his strength but missing some of the endurance required to swim the additional 50 meters. One might argue Dressel is in the opposite position, I think he has the endurance but is missing some of his strength and power. I will be interested to see who rebounds fully first.
What evidence have you for this assertion?
Adam…is in a very good place. He’s steady and calm, with just enough impatience not to blow lids off. Go, mate. Glad to see you in the tank!
I guess UK has now entered the conversation again in the two medley relays.
We still need a good 100 backstroker. Hopefully Oliver Morgan improves.
Is this like ale Clos where we are gonna hear “I’m back” and “Peaty 2.0” etc?
Budapest has a reputation as being a fast pool. I’m really looking forward to that leg.
Glad to see Peaty back on the rise. Paris has the potential to be the best swimming Olympics of all time if all the major players swim to their potential.
More than ’08?
‘08 was great but the super suits cheapen it a little. Paris definitely has potential to be better.
Yep and that includes Dressel which he is doing quite well on his way back to form next year for the Olympics trial.
I truly hope he will get to his peak in Paris
The battle with Qin will be legen- wait for it- dary
Legendary!
If he’s back to his best I don’t think I’ve seen any evidence to suggest Qin can compete yet, 56.8 is a looong way away.
If he can only get near his best (which seems likely) it will be a hell of a race though
Eh, Qin seems to be progressing and the fact he is consistently swimming sub 58 makes me think a drop to 57low is only so far away. Worth remembering while Peaty has been 56.8, the only other time he broke 57.3 in a global final was in Rio. I love Adam for what he has done for British swimming, and I do actually think he can get back to his best for Paris – the speed is very much there already, he was seldom faster than this in the 50 outside of taper – but I don’t know if his best will actually be enough this time.
I hope he’s excited about the prospect of having a real competitor. He’s really been all on his own since the days were van der Burgh could give him a challenge.