PAIN & GLORY

Peaty finding his way through choppy waters

- ALEX SPINK

FOR the first time in his life Adam Peaty, Britain's greatest swimmer, is playing catch-up.

The second anniversary of him retaining his Olympic title has coincided with one year exactly until the Paris Games.

It's the chance to look back with pride on Tokyo, where he repeated his Rio triumph in the men's 100 metres breaststroke.

And to turn his attention to France, to target an Olympic hat-trick in the same swimming event a feat that Michael Phelps alone, in the men's 200m individual medley, has bettered.

Only today finds Peaty looking neither forward nor back as he battles to get a handle on the present. Because while his job has not changed, pretty much everything else has.

"I need balance in my life," the 28-year-old admits. "I can't run from this any more.