PARIS -- Adam Peaty was pipped to the line in the men's 100-metre breaststroke final on Sunday, falling short in his bid to win the race for a third straight Olympic Games by just 0.02 seconds, as he picked up a silver medal in joint second place.
It had been expected that if anyone was going to deny Peaty victory, then it would be China's Qin Haiyang. Instead, he finished in seventh in a stunning race that saw Italy's Nicolò Martinenghi take the gold medal. Team USA's Nic Fink, who is a full-time engineer, matched Peaty's time and therefore shares the silver medal.
Martinenghi's winning time of 59.03 seconds was over two seconds slower than Peaty's 2019 world record in a notably slow final.
"I look at the board there and you never think that it would be 59 seconds to win it," Peaty said.
Peaty arrived in Paris with question marks over how he would perform given he only returned to racing in February after taking a break from the sport to protect his mental health. It came to be that he was a way off his best pace, but he said he is happy regardless.
"I gave my absolute all there and I executed it as well as I could," an emotional Peaty said. "It doesn't matter what the time says on the board, I know that in my heart I've already won. I'm not crying because I've come second, I'm crying because it took so much to get here."
He now has six Olympic medals, which includes three relay medals between Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.
"It's just incredibly hard to win it once and to win it again and again and trying to find new ways to do it," Peaty said. "Everything I've done to this point has happened for a reason and I'm so happy that I can race the best in the world and still get joint second.
"In my heart I've won and these are happy tears because I said to myself that I would give my absolute best every single day and I have. You can't be upset about that."
His Paris Olympics is likely not over, though, as he is expected to race in the 4x100-metre medley relays next week.
The result means Team GB's wait for a gold medal will roll into Day 3.