Adam Peaty’s girlfriend on ‘the most emotional moment of my life’

When Adam Peaty celebrated Team GB’s first gold in the pool, the world saw his parents celebrating either side of his girlfriend, Anna Zair. But what’s it like going out with an Olympian?

Anna, 19, who is currently in Rio, told us that Adam’s gold medal is just about “beginning to sink in.”

In her second year at Loughborough university, where Adam also attends, she studies social psychology with the intention of studying sport psychology for her masters. The couple met when Zair’s best friend Harriet moved to the City of Derby swimming club, “and the rest is history.”

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Anna herself used to swim, but has decided to “focus of education and having a social life” – rather than competing professionally.

Anna believes her relationship is still going strong, because she used to swim: “It helps a lot because I understand, late night training camps, training for long periods of time. It’s still difficult to go through a couple of weeks without being able to see him, but there’s FaceTime. It’s all worth it because of last night.”

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Girlfriend Anna cooks a lot for Adam, but unfortunately, his strict Olympian diet allows for “no cheeky Nando’s for us. Flapjacks are his treaty things, and he hasn’t had a proper drink since last season.”

With controversy and criticism flooding the news about the location of the Olympics and the Olympic village, Anna said: “It’s amazing, everyone is so welcoming and there’s such a buzz when you go into the Olympic village.”

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She says her and Adam’s parents, Caroline and Mark, have been “wearing the t shirts Rio have given us, people come up and congratulate us all the time, even Brazilians are cheering for Adam.

“I’m sure its a lot different to what the London olympics was like, but I’m here to support Adam at the end of the day.”

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Anna said they did not want to book flights “to tempt fate,” so it was very last minute, while her parents watch at home.  The rise of Adam’s nan, Mavis, has also come as a shock to Anna saying: “It’s mad! She went to bed with 200 followers, and over night she gained 6,000.”