When Adam Peaty walked through the doors at City of Derby in January 2009 awaiting him was Mel Marshall.
Mel is a former Great Britain swimmer who won world, European and Commonwealth medals as well as competing at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics.
After retiring from competition Mel turned her hand to coaching and now leads the Derby squad.
Teri McKeever led the United States women’s swimming team at the 2012 Olympics and Lisa Bate heads up the programme at London Aquatics Centre but coaching is generally still a male domain.
Adam and Mel’s partnership is working wonders with the breaststroker holding the 50m and 100m world records and the World Championships in Kazan looming.
Of whether Mel offers a different dimension as a female coach, Adam muses: “There is not that much difference really, I can’t really tell the difference. I don’t know if it is different coaches or gender.
“Mel pumps me up to the max – that is what she is good at, she knows how to get that 100% trigger on me.”
Adam had encountered male coaches before joining Derby and recalls:
“My old coaches were really aggressive but did me good.
“Before races when I was younger I was like ‘yeah let’s absolutely annihilate it’ but she has taught me how to think smarter now…
