(Reuters) – Simply being the best is not good enough, says Olympic breaststroke champion Adam Peaty; the Briton wants to increase the gap on his rivals as he defends his titles at the world swimming championships in Budapest.
“People say to me I’ve won the grand slam of swimming, got all the world records and stuff like that,” Peaty told The Times on Saturday. “But for me that doesn’t make me comfortable — I am not comfortable being the best; I want to be the best by a large margin. I still haven’t got that margin yet.”
Peaty, the world and Olympic champion and the world record-holder in the 100 and 50 meters breaststroke, said attack would be his best form of defense in Hungary.
“I feel like ‘defend’ is a bit laissez-faire, it’s like a little bit chilled, whereas I just want to go out and attack and fight off any challengers,” said the 22-year-old Peaty, who also won relay gold in the 4x100m medley at the last worlds in Russia two years ago.
Peaty, who won four gold medals at last year’s European Championships, refuses to rest on his laurels going into the world event at Budapest’s Duna Arena, which starts on Sunday.
“As soon as I get comfortable, then I’ll probably retire,” he said.
(Reporting by Aditi Prakash in Bengaluru; Editing by Clare Fallon)
