Rebecca Adlington was reduced to tears live on air on Sunday night, with the former Olympic champion left emotional at seeing fellow simmer Adam Peaty get a silver medal.
As she has been for the last decade, Rebecca, who won two gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the 400-metre freestyle and 800-metre freestyle, is on the BBC team for the Paris 2024 Olympics and watched on as Adam, who was Olympic champion of the 100m breaststroke in both 2016 and the delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2020, bid to make it three in a row this weekend.
Sadly for Adam, he didn't end up with the gold medal around his neck, that went to Italy's Nicolo Martinenghi, with Adam tied in second with American swimmer Nic Fink. Adam, who has admitted to having 'three years of hell' in the run up to Paris, seemed pleased with his silver, when he gave an upbeat interview to BBC pundit Sharron Davies minutes after the race but, back in the studio, Rebecca began to cry.
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Having seen Adam go and get a hug from his young son who was cheering him on in the crowd, Rebecca told BBC host Clare Balding: "I can't stop crying. I feel just so emotional. It's his little boy that's got me. I just need to see that Adam's smiling and I'll be fine. We didn't call that at all, did we? It was just one of those races that was so unpredictable."
In his interview to ex Olympian Sharron, Adam said: "I executed as well as I could. It doesn’t matter what it says on the scoreboard because in my heart I know that I’ve won there. I’m not crying because I’ve come second, I’m crying because of how hard its been to get here."
And, reacting to his words, Rebecca added: "As an athlete you know what he's been through. I mean, I've achieved nothing compared to Adam. What he's achieved it unbelievable, I can't even get my head around it."
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