Peaty started training at the City of Derby swimming club in 2007, where he was coached by
Melanie Marshall. He also trained up to eight times per week at
Repton School, a co-educational boarding
independent school in the village of
Repton in
Derbyshire, and two sessions at
Loughborough University. He started to train full-time at Loughborough University in 2017. Peaty's first senior event was the
2013 European Short Course Swimming Championships where he achieved three personal best times in the three breaststroke events.
2014 At the
2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, Peaty entered four events: the
50 metre breaststroke, the
100 metre breaststroke, the
200 metre breaststroke, and the
4 × 100 metre medley relay. In the 100 metre breaststroke, Peaty set new Commonwealth Games records in the heats, semi-finals and the final, posting a time of 58.94" to win the gold, 0.34 seconds faster than van der Burgh, who finished second. Olympic champion and world record holder van der Burgh was the favourite to win, but Peaty managed a record time for a British man in the event. In the 200 metre breaststroke, Peaty finished in fourth place, 0.15 seconds off a medal position and 2.72 seconds behind first-placed Scotsman
Ross Murdoch. Peaty also won gold in the 4 x 100 metre medley relay with his team of
Chris Walker-Hebborn,
Adam Barrett and
Adam Brown At the
2014 European Championships, Peaty set his first ever world record. After winning his heat of the
50 metre breaststroke, he then clocked a new world-record time of 26.62" in the semi-final. He then went on to win gold in the final. He also set a second world record as part of the final of the
4 × 100 metre mixed medley relay, along with Walker-Hebborn,
Jemma Lowe and
Fran Halsall, with a time of 3':44.02". He also won the gold in the
100 metre breaststroke after winning all 3 of his races and the gold in the
4 x 100 metre medley relay along with Walker-Hebborn, Barrett and
Ben Proud, ending the championships having won gold in 4 out of the 5 events he entered after not qualifying for the final of the
200 metre breaststroke. In the
2014 World Short Course Championships, he rounded off his year with three silver medals in
50 metre breaststroke,
100 metre breaststroke and the
4 x 50 metre mixed medley relay, but again didn't qualify for the final of the
200 metre breaststroke.
2015 In 2015, Peaty's rise continued, breaking the world record for 100 metre breaststroke at the British Championships and World Trials by almost half a second. His time of 57.92 seconds made him the first man to go under 58 seconds for the event. He qualified for all three breaststroke events at the 2015 World Aquatic Championships. At the
2015 World Championships, he became a World Champion for the first time. He won gold in the
100 metre breaststroke after winning both his heat and semi-final in new championship records before beating Cameron van der Burgh in the final, with his British team-mate Ross Murdoch winning the bronze medal. In the
50 metre breaststroke, van der Burgh broke the world record in the heats, Peaty then broke it once more in the semi-finals with a time of 26.42 seconds. Peaty then won the final of the event, which his second gold of the championship with van der Burgh taking silver. Peaty added a third gold with a win in the
4 × 100 metre mixed medley relay with a new world-record time along with Walker-Hebborn,
Siobhan-Marie O'Connor and Halsall. His team of Walker-Hebborn,
James Guy and Proud finished fourth in the 4 x 100 metre medley relay just missing out on a medal and he did not qualify out of the heats in his weakest event, the
200 metre breaststroke. Peaty rounded off his year by winning two silver medals at the
2015 European Short Course Swimming Championships in the 50 metre breaststroke and 100 metre breaststroke events.
2016 At the
2016 European Championships held in London, Peaty retained both of his individual titles in the
50 metre breaststroke and the
100 metre breaststroke, comfortably winning all of his heat, semi final and final swims and sharing the podium with his teammate Ross Murdoch on both occasions. He also retained both of his relay titles winning the
4 × 100 metre medley relay with Walker-Hebborn, Guy and
Duncan Scott, and the
mixed 4 × 100 metre medley relay with Walker-Hebborn, O'Connor and Halsall. He did not enter the
200 metre breaststroke event and had never entered the event again at a major championship. Peaty only competed in the
100 metre breaststroke in the individual events as 50 metre breaststroke was not an
Olympic swimming event at the
2016 Summer Olympics in
Rio de Janeiro. In the heats, Peaty broke his own world record with a time of 57.55 seconds. He then won his semi-final and went on to win the final, breaking the new world record that he himself had set in the heats, and winning
Team GB's first gold medal of the 2016 Olympics on 7 August 2016, winning with a time of 57.13 seconds. He won a further silver medal in the
4 × 100 metre medley relay with Walker-Hebborn, Guy and Scott.
2017 At the
2017 World Aquatics Championships, Peaty retained his
100 metre breaststroke title. After easily winning his heat and semi-final races, he won in the final winning the race with a championship record of 57.47 seconds. Peaty also broke his own world record twice in the
50 metre breaststroke. He recorded 26.10 seconds in the heats, and in the semi-final, he became the first man to break 26 seconds and won in 25.95 seconds. He successfully defended his 50-metre breaststroke title with another sub-26 time of 25.99 seconds in the final, completing another double at the World Championships with van der Burgh taking bronze. He won a further silver in the
4 × 100 metre medley relay at the World Championship, setting a new British record, with the same Olympic line-up of Walker-Hebborn, Guy and Scott, but missed out on a medal in the
4 x 100 metre mixed medley relay with Davies, Guy and O'Connor despite setting a new European record. At the
2017 European Short Course Swimming Championships, Peaty won a bronze medal in the 50 metre breaststroke with a personal best time and setting a new
British record. He then went on to win gold in the 100 metre breaststroke setting a new
European record in the process, his first ever gold medal at a short course event.
2018 At the
2018 Commonwealth Games, Peaty defended his
100 metre breaststroke title, winning in a time of 58.84 seconds after setting a games record time in the semi-final of 58.59, beating his teammate
James Wilby in to silver medal position and his old rival van der Burgh in to bronze. However, he finished second in the
50 metre breaststroke behind van der Burgh, the first time he had failed to win a 50-metre breaststroke race for 4 years since he lost to him at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. He also helped his England team win a silver medal in the
4 × 100 metre medley relay with
Luke Greenbank, Guy and Proud. At the
2018 European Championships, Peaty once again defended his European title in the
100 metre breaststroke, beating his own world record with a time recorded as 57.00 seconds, which was corrected to 57.10" the next day. He added a second gold when he won as part of the team in the
4 × 100 metre mixed medley relay with
Georgia Davies, Guy and
Freya Anderson, and a third in the
50 metre breaststroke setting three championship records in a row to win the gold. He brought his tally at the championships to four golds after winning the
4 × 100 metre medley relay as part of the British team with
Nicholas Pyle, Guy and Scott which made him Britain's first three-time quadruple champion at the European Championships. At the end of the European Championships, he held the eleven best times in history for the 50 metre breaststroke and the fourteen best times in the 100 metre breaststroke.
2019 At the
2019 World Aquatics Championships held in
Gwangju, South Korea, Peaty broke his own world record in the semi-final of the
100 metre breaststroke with a time of 56.88", and became the first man to break 57 seconds in the event, before anybody else had swum in under 58 seconds. He retained his 100-metre title in the final, after finishing first in front of his training partner James Wilby. He won the gold in the
50 metre breaststroke for the third time, completing the triple double at the World Championships. He also won a bronze in the
4 × 100 metre mixed medley relay with Davies, Guy and Anderson. Peaty made this his most successful world championships yet after winning his third gold in the
4 × 100 metre medley relay together with Greenbank, Guy and Scott, the first gold won by the British team in this event at the Championships. He helped the team finish first in a European record time of 3 minutes, 28.10 seconds to beat the United States. Peaty competed in the
inaugural season of the
International Swimming League in 2019 and was one of the main supporters for the league's creation. Peaty was chosen as team captain for
London Roar and helped his team reach the grand final in Las Vegas in which they finished in second place, with Peaty having won four out of the eight individual breaststroke events he competed in.
2020 Due to the worldwide
COVID-19 pandemic both the
2020 Olympics and
2020 European Championships were postponed until 2021. On 15 November 2020, at the International Swimming League meet in
Budapest, Peaty competed as part of the London Roar team. He broke the world record for the short-course 100m breaststroke with a time of 55.49 seconds in the semi-final, which was his first ever world record in short course metres. He then beat his own world record time in the 100m breaststroke one week later, swimming 55.41 seconds in the final. He ended up winning 6 out his 15 individual breaststroke events during the 2020 ISL season, as well as all 3 of the skins races he competed in. In December, Peaty and three fellow 2019 individual world championship medal-winning team-mates were pre-selected for the postponed Tokyo Olympics.
2021 At the 2021 British Swimming Olympic trials, Peaty won the 100m breaststroke title on the opening day of the championships at the London Aquatics Centre in a time of 57.39 seconds. In May 2021, he won his fourth successive gold medals in both the
100m breaststroke and the
50m breaststroke at the European Championships. He also won two further golds as part of the team in the
mixed 4 × 100 metre medley and
men's medley relays. In July 2021, Peaty became the first British swimmer to defend an Olympic title. He won Britain's first gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games (held in 2021), beating
Arno Kamminga of the Netherlands in the
100m breaststroke with a time of 57.37 seconds. He won a second gold in the
mixed 4 × 100 metre medley relay, setting a world record time of 3 minutes 37.58 seconds together with
Kathleen Dawson,
James Guy and
Anna Hopkin. For the
2021 International Swimming League, Peaty was selected to the roster for team London Roar by fan vote. While Peaty remained on the regular and playoffs season rosters, he ultimately decided not to compete in the International Swimming League in 2021 as the league had still not paid him all of the money he earned from the 2020 year. For the 21st century up to the end of 2021, Peaty had set a total of 11 individual world records in short course and long course metres, ranking as number five behind
Michael Phelps,
Aaron Peirsol,
Ryan Lochte, and Cameron van der Burgh in terms of total number of individual world records achieved by a male swimmer in the century.
2022 In March 2022, Peaty signed a
professional sponsorship deal with
Speedo. Approximately two months later, he announced that due to a fractured foot that required him to rest for 6 weeks, he would not be participating at the
2022 World Aquatics Championships held in June in Budapest. Peaty returned to compete in the
2022 Commonwealth Games after his injury but was beaten in the final of the 100m breaststroke for the first time in 8 years, finishing fourth behind England team-mate James Wilby and Australians
Zac Stubblety-Cook and Sam Williamson. Peaty later said that he didn't know "what went wrong" and that he has "kind of lost that spark". Peaty later went on to win gold in the 50m breaststroke event for the first time at the Commonwealth Games, winning in a time of 26.76 seconds. After the race he said that he has his 'spark back' but did not go on to race in any of the relay events at the championships and also chose to skip the
2022 European Championships. Later in the year, in December at the
2022 World Short Course Championships in
Melbourne, Australia, Peaty won the bronze medal in the
100 metre breaststroke with a time of 56.25 seconds, which was 37-hundredths of a second behind gold medalist
Nic Fink and 18-hundredths of a second behind silver medalist
Nicolò Martinenghi, and marked the first medal for Great Britain at the Championships. One day earlier in the competition, on 14 December, he helped achieve a fourth-place finish in the
4×50 metre mixed medley relay, splitting a 25.24 to contribute to the final mark of 1:37.07, which set a new British record in the event. On 16 December, he placed eighteenth in the
200 metre breaststroke with a time of 2:07.31. For his final event of the Championships, the
50 metre breaststroke, he finished in a time of 25.99 seconds in the final to place sixth.
2024 After winning the
100 metres breaststroke at the
2024 Aquatics GB Swimming Championships, Peaty sealed his place at the
2024 Summer Olympics. At the
2024 Summer Olympics in
Paris, Peaty won the silver medal in the 100m breaststroke, finishing tied with
Nic Fink and behind
Nicolò Martinenghi. It was revealed the next day that Peaty was feeling slightly unwell before the final, and tested positive for Covid the morning after the final. ==Personal life==