Adam Peaty: ‘You have to be better than everyone else, there’s no sugar-coating it’

The 26-year-old swimmer and father-of-one swept all before him at the Tokyo Olympics... but his exit from Strictly, he admits, was humbling

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World champion swimmer Adam Peaty, the unbeaten world record holder of the 50m and 100m breaststroke, is friendly and engaged, but he makes no bones about being hypercompetitive. He once said that he felt like a god" in the pool. He says now, You have to be better than everyone else, there's no sugar-coating it."

A swimming phenomenon (think of him as a kind of national Aquaman), Peaty has had a stellar year, even by his standards: he won two golds and a silver in Team GB in the Tokyo Olympics; he also signed up for Strictly Come Dancing, where he was partnered with Katya Jones. After seven hip-swivelling weeks, he went out on a jive that placed him bottom of the Strictly leaderboard; his mother was so upset, she thought it was a fix. Was it humbling to learn a new discipline? Peaty gives a kind of groaning laugh: It did humble me. I'm not used to getting last place, to be honest."