Adam George Ramsay-Peaty (né Peaty; born 28 December 1994) is an English competitive swimmer who specialises in the sprint breaststroke events. He won the gold medal in the 100 metre breaststroke at the 2016 Summer Olympics, the first by a male British swimmer in 24 years, and retained the title at the 2020 Summer Olympics in 2021, the first British swimmer ever to retain an Olympic title.

He is also an eight-time World Champion, a sixteen-time European Champion and a four-time Commonwealth Champion. Between the years 2014 and 2020, Peaty achieved complete dominance in the 100 metre breaststroke in long-course major championships, and almost complete dominance of the 50 metre breaststroke, with only Cameron van der Burgh. of South Africa's victories in the Commonwealth Games of 2014 and 2018 interrupting his reign. According to FINA itself, Peaty is widely regarded as the dominant breaststroke swimmer of his era, and the most dominant sprint breaststroke swimmer of all time.

Peaty is the holder of the world record in 50 metre and 100 metre breaststroke events. He has broken 14 world records, becoming the first man to swim under 26 seconds for the 50 metre breaststroke and the first to swim the 100 metre breaststroke under both 58 and 57 seconds. He is the first swimmer ever to win both sprint breaststroke events at the same World championships, and the most successful British swimmer in a single World Championships.

Peaty is one of only six British swimmers, with David Wilkie, Rebecca Adlington, James Guy, Duncan Scott, and Tom Dean to have won gold medals at all four major international events (Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth Games), and with David Wilkie the only swimmers to hold all four major gold medals in the same single event at the same time, a feat he completed in winning the 100 metre breaststroke at the 2016 Olympics, and which he uniquely maintained through the 2020 Olympics. Peaty is a six-time European swimmer of the year which he has won consecutively from 2014 to 2019, and also a two-time World swimmer of the year in 2015 and 2018.

Adam George Peaty was born on 28 December 1994 in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, to Mark and Caroline Peaty, the youngest of four children. He attended St Josephs Catholic Primary School in Uttoxeter, Painsley Catholic College in Cheadle and Derby College. As a young boy, he developed an acute fear of water and was averse to being put in the bath after his brothers told him that sharks may come up through the plughole. At four years of age Peaty and his friend both went on their first swimming lesson together. It was at this swimming lesson where he lost the fear.

Peaty first joined Dove Valley Swimming Club in Uttoxeter when he was nine, and started to win races and setting club records by the time he was twelve. When he was 14, a friend took Peaty to join City of Derby Swimming Club, but the coach at the club, former Olympic swimmer Melanie Marshall, was not impressed by Peaty's performance in the freestyle and put him in the slow lane with younger girls. However, she noticed "something special" the first time she saw him swim breaststroke.

She also recognised the advantages of his large hands, big feet, "extraordinary cardiovascular system", and hyper-mobile, double-jointed knees and ankles. According to Peaty, he did not take swimming seriously until he was 17 – he was preparing for a night out drinking with friends when he read that Craig Benson, whom he knew well from the junior circuit, made the semi-final of the 100m breaststroke at the 2012 London Olympics. This prompted him to reassess his priorities, and spurred him on to commit fully to swimming and train full-time.

"I can't believe it, it's a dream, I've studied Cameron [van der Burgh] for a while–he was my idol, and now he's my rival. I knew I would go off quickly, but I caught him. It is a major stepping-stone for me, and for swimming in the country."