(Reuters) -British breaststroke titan Adam Peaty confirmed he will bid for more Olympic gold in the Los Angeles pool following a decision to add six 50-metre sprint events to the 2028 Games programme.
Three-times Olympic champion and world record holder Peaty missed out on a third successive 100m breaststroke gold by 0.02 seconds at the Paris Games, losing to Italian Nicolo Martinenghi after testing positive for COVID-19.
But as world record holder in the 50m breaststroke, 30-year-old Peaty is ready to go again.
“50m sprint events have just been added to @la28games which confirms my attempt to be at my fourth Olympic Games,” Peaty said on social media.
“This is the best result for our incredible sport and will allow more people to be part of it and stay in it much longer.
“I’ve got a good feeling about these next three years.”
Peaty will be 33 when LA hosts the Games but the training load for the 50m will be relatively light compared to the existing 100 and 200m events.
Apart from breaststroke, there will be 50m events in the men’s and women’s butterfly and backstroke at LA, lifting total medal events to 41 from 35 in Paris.
The 50m freestyle was added to the programme at Seoul 1988.
LA’s expanded programme will be game-changing for a slew of older swimmers who might otherwise have signed off from the Olympics after Paris.
Swede Sarah Sjostrom, who swept the 50m and 100m freestyle golds at Paris, is the 50m butterfly world record holder and has never been beaten in the event at world championships dating back to 2015.
The 31-year-old, who is pregnant with her first child, is targeting a comeback to the pool to compete at LA.
“All 50s are finally being added to the Olympic program! Best news ever for the swimming world,” the 31-year-old posted on social media.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
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