For years, Adam Peaty made the impossible look routine. He became the first man to break 58 seconds in the 100m breaststroke, then the first to go under 57 seconds. But 2026 has brought a very different challenge. At the European Championships in Paris, Peaty finished fifth in the 100m breaststroke, ending his perfect 16-for-16 European gold-medal run in the event. And if that setback was not enough, the Olympic champion suffered another blow in the 50m breaststroke.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
Peaty entered the 50m breaststroke on August 14 knowing exactly what the event had meant to his career. He remains the world-record holder at 25.95 seconds, a mark he set at the 2017 World Championships. He had also won four European 50m titles, taking gold in 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2021. But none of that history could help him in Paris.
Peaty was drawn into Heat 5, where Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi won in 26.65 seconds. Peaty struggled from the start and finished eighth in the heat in 27.34. His time left him 20th overall, just 0.05 seconds outside the final qualifying position for the semifinals. The problem was visible almost immediately. Peaty came off the blocks poorly and was left chasing the field from the opening phase.
In a 50m race, there is almost no time to recover from a bad start, and Peaty could not close the gap.
“These performances are not good enough at all,” Peaty said afterward. “I’m like it’s so bad that I’m confused.”
Peaty was not simply disappointed about missing a semifinal. He admitted that he did not even know where to begin when trying to break down the swim.
“I don’t really know like where to start on a debrief,” he said. “It’s very frustrating but hoping we can figure it out.”
There was also a noticeable difference in Peaty’s reaction compared with the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. After winning bronze in the 100m breaststroke there, the 31-year-old broke down in tears. He later added another bronze and a relay silver. This time, there were no tears. Instead, Peaty was left frustrated and searching for an explanation.
The 50m result is especially difficult because Peaty has been working specifically on the part of his race that went wrong. Since mid-June, he has been working with coach Lisa Bates on his dive, trying to understand where he is losing time at the start. He said he and Bates began deconstructing his dive around the Sette Colli Trophy in Rome. However, Peaty admitted that some things have actually become worse since they began making changes.
“I think I’ve just got to really change up what I’m doing,” he said, pointing to the dive and pull-downs as areas where he is losing valuable time. However, the disappointment came only days after his 100m result had already brought an end to one of the most remarkable streaks in European swimming.
Adam Peaty’s 2026 season
Peaty actually began 2026 with a strong sign of form at the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships in April. He won the 50m breaststroke in 26.64 seconds and the 100m breaststroke in 58.97 seconds.
However, at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games, Peaty was the fastest 100m breaststroker to qualify for the final with a 59.19 time in the semifinal. However, he was unable to match that pace in the final. He came in third in 59.65, which was one-fifth of a second behind Sam Williamson of Australia and Filip Nowacki of Jersey. It was a loss for Peaty in the Commonwealth 100m, as well as leaving him visibly emotional afterwards.
He then had a better result in the 50m breaststroke at Glasgow, winning bronze. He had also won bronze in the 100m and added a silver in the men’s 4x100m medley relay. So Glasgow was not a complete disaster. He was still winning medals, but for Peaty, the problem was that he was no longer winning the gold medals he had become accustomed to.
The European Championships in Paris made the decline much harder to ignore. Peaty finished fifth in the 100m breaststroke in 59.10 seconds. That result ended one of the most extraordinary records in European swimming. He had previously won 16 European 100m breaststroke titles from 16 races dating back to 2014. Paris was his first defeat in that event at a European Aquatics Championship.