Mel Marshall Talks Adam Peaty & “Just Daring To Dream That Anything Was Possible”
In the first of two articles, Mel Marshall talks to Swimming World about her 15-year journey with Adam Peaty
A defining moment in Mel Marshall’s life came when she saw a young swimmer at the City of Derby club do breaststroke.
Marshall had been appointed head coach in 2008 following her retirement from competition after a career that spanned two Olympics and in which she won world, European and Commonwealth medals.
The swimmer in question was Adam Peaty, a 14-year-old who’d walked through the doors at the Derbyshire club but hadn’t impressed Marshall with his freestyle.
That all changed, however, as Marshall explained: “I saw him do breaststroke and I thought this kid’s good.”
It was the start of a partnership that would see Peaty dominate the 50 and 100 breaststroke for eight years after winning his first international title at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Mel Marshall, Adam Peaty, 2014 Commonwealth Games: Photo Courtesy: Mel Marshall
Peaty learned the foundations with Dove Valley Swimming Club in Uttoxeter but it was the day that he accompanied his friend Kyle to a try-out session that would prove to be life-changing for both him and Marshall.
“That was the moment really,” she said. “Fifteen years is a long time and it’s felt like a long time but it’s felt like no time. It almost feels like – did it ever happen?
“It was so good – it was swimming coaching highs of a magnitude that you can’t even imagine. Just the uniqueness and specialness of it.
“From a little club and everybody said you can’t have performance and then little City of Derby we end up winning the Olympics and Paralympic bronze (Lewis White, 400 free S9 at Rio 2016) and world records, 25.9 and 56-point.
“All from what started out as a 1:15, wouldn’t do a 200 breast and a 35.9, that’s where it started. It’s just unique and very special, a story that I’ll remember for the rest of my life and be thankful for the rest of my life.”
Peaty’s rollcall: Three golds among six Olympic medals. Eight world titles. Sixteen European crowns. Four Commonwealth golds.
The pair drove their events to places never previously contemplated. The first man through the 58-second barrier in 57.92, Peaty’s best stands at 56.88 from the 2019 World Championships, 0.81 swifter than the second-fastest man Qin Haiyang with a PB of 57.69.
The only man inside 26 seconds over 50m with a best of 25.95. Qin again second fastest all-time in 26.20.
For 15 years, Marshall was by Peaty’s side, guiding him from a teenage hopeful to the pinnacle before their partnership came to an end following Paris 2024 as the 43-year-old bade farewell to Aquatics GB to head to pastures new with Swimming Australia at Griffith University Swim Club.
Theirs was an athlete-coach relationship built on shared goals, communication, mutual trust and more.
Marshall said:
“The big thing we were always aligned on was that we’re working-class, hard-working people. We were normal people that just dared to dream that anything was possible and no-one would get in our way.
“I had ultimate belief in him and I had a warrior spirit that would fight through anything for him. And he had ultimate belief in me and he could outwork anybody.”
Highs, Lows & Leading With Empathy
After the continuous highs Peaty enjoyed from 2014 onwards came the lows. Physically and mentally exhausted, he was on the brink of ending his career “a thousand times.”
Melanie Marshall – Photo Courtesy: Action Woman Twitter
Eventually it came down to either retiring or returning to competition with an approach that was healthier for his mental wellbeing.
He chose the latter and the pair set about on the long road back. It was hugely challenging but Marshall was determined to do whatever it took despite the emotional toll.
“When you work with someone for 15 years in that intimate space, you go through it with them,” she said.
“I lead with care and I always lead with empathy. Everything he really went through I really went through – there’s no lying about it. I felt responsible for him, I felt worried for him, I felt all the emotions that you could ever feel with everything involved in that.
“We picked that challenge up about 16 months out and it came to the point where I was a bit like I was in Covid. Whatever it takes to get it across the line I’ll do everything I need to do. It was really intense; it was really difficult and I was living with some of my own compromises in lots of different ways.”
Peaty returned to international competition at the 2024 World Championships in Doha where he won bronze in the 100m breaststroke in 59.10 after heading the semis in 58.60, then his fastest time since Tokyo gold in July 2021. He followed that with a second bronze with the Great Britain mixed medley relay squad as well as finishing fourth in the 50 (26.77).
Next up were the British Olympic trials at the Aquatics Centre in London where he served notice with 58.53 in prelims before blasting 57.94 in the final to book a place at his third Olympics after what he described as “three years of hell.”
Paris 2024 & The Sporting Gods
Peaty arrived in the French capital atop the rankings and the only man through the 58-sec barrier ahead of Qin’s 58.24 at the Chinese Championships.
There was a lot of talk of the three-peat where victory would see him join Michael Phelps as the only men to have won the same event at three straight Games.
Second in prelims in 59.18 was followed by a 58.86 topper in semis as he and Qin (58.93) booked the centre lanes for the final.
Nicolo Martinenghi & Adam Peaty: Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala, Deepbluemedia
Peaty woke on the day of the final with a sore throat and croaky voice. Marshall’s suspicions that he had Covid would later be proved correct but the pair didn’t speak about it but instead continued their preparations.
Come the final and Qin led at halfway, 0.05 ahead of Peaty. The Briton forged ahead and appeared on the brink of victory before Nicolo Martinenghi came through at the death to take the title in 59.03 as Peaty and Fink shared silver in 59.05.
Just 0.02 separated Peaty from a third straight title but Marshall’s immediate feeling was “that’s sport.”
“I was just relieved that it was done and we had an outcome,” she said. “I was also ‘ah’ – but that’s what the whole preparation at the time felt like, that the tide was against us a little bit.
“I just felt relief. I felt happy it was Nicolo; I felt that we could have come the other side of the result and we came the right side of it. He was unlucky but it was just the sporting gods, that’s what it was. I was happy with it because I looked back and I was like ‘couldn’t have done any more’.
“There was not one thing I could have done more – I had given everything so that’s all you can do, isn’t it?”
An emotional Peaty gave an interview to the BBC where he said: “I’m not crying because I’ve lost or whatever because in my heart I’ve won.”
Those words made for a moment of immense pride for Marshall. A reflection of how his mindset had changed since the time he described himself as having a drive that was “demonic” in its relentlessness and intensity.
“I’m glad that for the moment of finishing it, he was at peace. It was no longer unknown, there was no more kind of suffering through the same muddy waters in some ways. It was a success.
“Everyone’s like ‘oh it’s 0.02’ – the sporting gods said no but I don’t remember it for that and I won’t remember it for that. I’ll remember it for that moment when he looked in the crowd and looked at his son, when he gave Holly (fiancé Holly Ramsay) a hug and when he was at peace with the result. That to me was success because those conversations and the hours away from the pool were the things that held him up.
“I made a promise to him – and I made a promise to all my athletes – that on their darkest day I wouldn’t walk out and I didn’t. As a coach I was actually really proud of myself.”
While One Chapter Ends, Another Begins
Peaty joined Oli Morgan, Duncan Scott and Matt Richards for the medley relay where the quartet came fourth.
The Olympics were over and so was the Marshall-Peaty partnership as her time in the British swimming system came to a close.
She sat on her balcony at the Olympic Village with her friend and Team GB open water coach Hayley Baker, the pair silent in the darkness as Marshall left all the group chats.
Adam Peaty & Mel Marshall: Photo Courtesy: Mel Marshall
“I just quietly cried, quite heavy crying,” she said. “And then really weird – I really wanted a bath so I had a bath and I left the Village on the earliest flight back to Birmingham.
“The emotion was really intense after everything because there’s so much that you experience: there’s the end of the Olympics, there’s the being in the British system since I was seven, there’s the I can’t wait to have four months off, there’s the I’ve worked with some fantastic people and that will be the end of that.
“There’s the reality that things are going to change and it was the end of a monumental 15 years with Adam and also the athletes that I loved working with, my group and the fact that was going to change – I wasn’t going to work with Luke (Greenbank) anymore, I wasn’t going to work with Anna (Hopkin) and things were going to change.
“I remember getting off the plane in Birmingham and feeling this huge amount of relief and my soul felt completely at peace. I just felt so relaxed and that I was looking forward to new adventures.”
