Project 56: Adam Peaty Smashes the 100m Breaststroke World Record
Have you heard of “Project 56”? If you live in the world of swimming, Olympics, or sports then you most likely have.
Project 56 was young Adam Peaty’s goal to break his own record and swim the 100m breaststroke in less than 57 seconds. He had already broken the world record (which belonged to him) but he still wasn’t satisfied.
Keep reading to learn how Adam completed Project 56. You’ll be impressed, surprised and maybe even inspired.
Who is Adam Peaty?
Adam Peaty is a 24-year-old British swimmer. Not just any swimmer, though! He currently holds two world records, one in the 50m and the other in the 100m.
From the small English town of Uttoxeter, he started swimming at age nine and his teachers quickly recognised his gift. Uniquely enough, he didn’t start seriously training for the Olympics until he was 17 years old!
He has since beaten many world records, won countless championships both in the UK and internationally, and won the Olympic gold medal in 2016 for the 100m. He swam it in 57 seconds. But he wasn’t done there!
Beating the current world record and setting his own was not enough for Adam. He set his sights on Project 56, his goal to swim the same 100m in less than 57 seconds.
Read more about the FINA World Championships. It’s broken down into the highlights, so it’s a quick and awesome read!
Project 56
Adam became an Olympic champion in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 when he swam the 100m breaststroke in 57.13 seconds. Two years later, he broke his own record when he completed the same event in 57.10 seconds at the European Championships.
Closer and closer to 57 seconds, but not quite! After the 2016 Olympics in Rio, he set a lofty goal for himself: swim the 100m breaststroke in less than 57 seconds.
This was incredibly ambitious because, besides him, no man had ever done it in even 58 seconds! And no one else was even close to 57 seconds at that point. Having accomplished 58 seconds, though, he set his sights high.
He trained for three years to complete his Project 56. Then, at the World Championship this year in South Korea, his ambition, determination, and hard work paid off: he astounded the crowd and swimmers everywhere by swimming the 100m breaststroke in 56.88 seconds!
He trained tirelessly, set a zealous goal, trained even harder, and made history. His inspiring story shows what determination in athletics can really do.
The Power of a Goal
Just one goal: swim this race just one second faster. It seems simple, right? One second shouldn’t make that big of a difference, right?
Well, no one in history had ever been able to do it in the 100m breaststroke. Until Adam Peaty.
He showed the world the power of a firm, ambitious goal.
Don’t miss out on other stories like this: check out our other articles about UK swimming news. And good luck to Adam at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics!
Image credit – Fernando Frazão/Agência Brasil