The Olympics, huh?
The gold and silver medals were separated by two hundredths of a second. She won the silver medal, but not the gold medal.
There is no equal mix of emotions.
And with Adam Peaty that’s only half the story.
The 29-year-old Briton already had enough golds (three Olympics, eight world championships, four Commonwealth and 16 Europeans) to have retired happily.
Another victory in the men’s 100m breaststroke final on Sunday would have assured him sporting immortality as the only man other than American great Michael Phelps to win the same swimming event at three consecutive Olympic Games.
This time it was only silver, but from Peaty’s perspective, this time, even for the top competitor, it felt almost as good.
“I feel like I’ve won,” Peaty said through tears.
“That’s the beauty of it. I put my whole heart into it and I couldn’t have put more into it.”
Having been at the top for so long, Peaty encountered dark times after Olympic gold in Tokyo in 2021.
He broke his foot in 2022 and finished fourth at the Commonwealth Games later that year, ending his eight-year unbeaten streak. He described what followed as a self-destructive spiral.
There were also problems with alcohol and his mental health, as well as a break from sport and the break-up of his relationship with the mother of his three-year-old son.
A year ago I didn’t want to see a pool again, much less compete in one in front of the world.
“People don’t understand the sacrifice, the decisions you have to make just to win Olympic gold,” she told the BBC in April.
She has previously spoken about how the birth of her son, George, disrupted the “flow” of her regimented life.
Curly-haired George has been in the arena for every one of Peaty’s races this week and when Peaty lifted him into her arms after the medal ceremony, the tears came back again.
“I can’t have that relentless pursuit every day without a sacrifice of some kind, and that sacrifice can come in different ways: time, energy, relationships,” he said.
“Anyone who has kids will know: you love them with your whole life. You have moments where you have to prove yourself, and I think I proved that tonight.”
By then the tears had spread from the pool to the TV studio, with Rebecca Adlington, her former mentor who also went from Midlands girl to Olympic champion, struggling for words.
“You could tell he was really happy,” said the 2008 two-time freestyle champion. “You could tell they were tears of joy.
“I’m just excited for him because as an athlete, you know what he’s been through.”
But in reality, few of us actually do it.
The early morning hours, the brutal hours at the gym, the time away from family.
When young George catches a cold, Peaty distances himself, such is his commitment to the sport.
And then there’s the 10-year effort like the hunted one: the man who at one point had the 20 fastest 100-meter breaststroke times in history, in a period of dominance rarely seen by any individual athlete or team.
When his return came last fall, Peaty looked to trainer Mel Marshall, who has been with him since he was a teenager, for new ways to train in an attempt to keep his days fresh.
“It’s incredibly difficult to win it once, and again, and again, and try to find new ways to do it.”
There’s a reason they call Phelps the greatest of all time.
Peaty was tight-lipped when asked what the future holds for him once the dust has settled. Marshall will move from Loughborough to Australia after these Olympics, raising questions about Peaty’s future in the sport.
In Paris there will still be one, possibly two, relay races to compete in.
Gold in either would put him alongside Mo Farah, Matthew Pinsent and Ben Ainslie on Britain’s all-time list with four.
Those three, plus those ahead of them (Jason Kenny with seven, Chris Hoy with six, Bradley Wiggins, Laura Kenny and Steve Redgrave with five) are all men or women.
Peaty has given his all for a sport that, on this occasion, did not offer him a fairy tale.
But as she hugged her son with an Olympic medal around his neck that she could easily have walked away from, the prevailing feeling was that this was more than enough.
