If Adam Peaty was harbouring any serious worries about his prospects of making history in Paris, then they will have eased ever so slightly amid the waves at La Defense Arena on Saturday.
He had two races, recorded two wins and retired for bed knowing he was, as usual, the fastest man to progress to Sunday’s 100m breaststroke final.
That Qin Haiyang will join him there will doubtless present some nerves, to both Peaty and his sport, but the early evidence points in favour of Team GB’s golden fish over a Chinese athlete who has spent months under an almighty doping cloud.
Naturally, anything can happen in a final and it is necessary to wonder if Qin held anything back in a laboured heat and tricky semi-final, just as it tempting to ask if we can trust his journey to these Olympics. His failed drugs test in 2021 and that of so many of his team-mates invites those sorts of questions.
But it is beyond dispute that Peaty qualified with greater comfort. Certainly, they were close together on timings – Peaty’s semi was won in 58.86sec and Qin took the other in 58.93sec – and yet one man was easing up, the other was busting guts. A hair apart of paper; a different picture for the eye.
When Peaty made it through, having avoided his prime rival through those rounds, he departed the water with the strut of a man who feels awfully good about his prospects.
Speaking to the BBC, he referenced a conversation he had with his three-year-old son George, saying: ‘He goes, “Daddy, are you the fastest boy?” Even if I haven’t seen him for two weeks, that is all he cares about. I just want to be the fastest boy tomorrow, keep it simple.’
Simple indeed. Peaty is well aware that one more win will see him join Michael Phelps as the only male swimmer to win gold at three straight Games and, for all his difficulties with depression and motivation between cycles, he is wearing the pressure well.
Far more complicated is the tale of Qin, as we know. As one of 23 Chinese swimmers who failed drugs tests ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, and the murky way in which that information was concealed until April of this year, there has been outrage that he and others from that cohort are here.
For his part, Qin has spoken of conspiratorial plots against the Chinese to see them tested far more than anyone else, which has hardly endeared him.
What has never been disputed is his talent – having won three gold medals at the world championships last year, he of course poses an immense threat to Peaty on Sunday. But to see him finish third in his heat, recording only the ninth fastest time for the semi-finals, and then tie up after 60m in the night race was jarring.
We might say the same for some of the times posted throughout the day. Peaty himself alluded to many competitors across the disciplines looking a touch off the pace and a plausible theory advanced in Paris centred on the use of a ‘slow pool’ at La Defense Arena.
The cause is its depth – at 2.15m it is approximately 80cm shallower than its equivalent at the Tokyo Olympics. Deeper pools generate fewer waves, which in turns means less drag on the swimmers.
Presumably that is a less compelling reason than age for Peaty, 29, being almost two seconds down on his world record pace, but you suspect he won’t care if he is first to touch the wall on Sunday.
For all the excitement around his situation, there was disappointment for the men’s 4x100m freestyle team of Matt Richards, Jacob Whittle, Tom Dean and Duncan Scott, who finished their finale in fifth.
They are favourites for the 200m equivalent but were fancied as an excellent shot for a medal here and fell a long way short. Richards said: ‘It is frustrating, we really wanted to try and get into the medals tonight.’
In what was billed the race of the night, ’s Ariarne Titmus defended her 400m freestyle title by edging 17-year-old Canadian prodigy Summer McIntosh to the wall. Katie Ledecky of the United States claimed her 11th Olympic medal by touching for bronze.