Adam Peaty sets new world record as he wins gold with incredible time of 57.13secs in 100m breaststroke and claims Team GB's first medal of Rio 2016 Olympics

Adam Peaty, who said he started life without privilege and hated water as a boy, has become the first British gold medallist of Rio 2016.

But he did far more than simply that. In the space of 57.13secs, he destroyed his own world record, he honoured his country, and he sent seismic waves bouncing across the swimming world.

He flashed a boyish smile. He looked at the clock. He hugged the vanquished. He held his hands to his side. He punched his fist.

 Scroll down for video 

Adam Peaty smashed his own world record as he blew away his rivals to win gold at the Rio 2016 Olympics

Peaty swam an absolutely incredible time of 57.13secs in Rio to become an Olympic champion

Peaty's nearest challenger was reigning champion Cameron van der Burgh, who finished with a time of 58.69secs

Peaty has now swum the seven fastest times in history and twice beat his own world record in three swims in Rio

The only fear at the start of the night, albeit a slight one, was whether the big-chested, strong-legged 21-year-old would be so crippled by nerves that he could not sustain the pre-eminence he had shown by qualifying for the final with the two fastest times the world had ever seen.

Would butterflies cause him to fall into the pool? Yes, a false start was the only thing that could stop Peaty from fulfilling his destiny in the Aquatics Centre. Nothing and nobody else could.

One's stomach turned as he walked out for the final and went to lane four. A few stray voices shouted from the crowd. They were on their marks.

Peaty's start was sensational – the fastest on display. The man in the red cap hit the front and that was that. Goodnight Rio. Goodnight the world.

The rest of them in the lanes beside him were there to make the Englishman look special. The world record he set the day before of 57.55sec had gone. 

The only worry about Peaty going into the final was whether nerves had overcome him, but that was far from the case

 Peaty became Team GB's first medal winner at the Rio 2016 Olympics and won gold in truly incredible fashion

Amazingly enough, Peaty had to overcome a fear of water when he was a child 

He has now swum the seven fastest times in history and twice beaten his own world record in three swims on his Olympic debut. 

From 57.92sec before Saturday's heats to his new mark somewhere far over the horizon. And to think that nobody else has gone below 58sec.

His nearest challenger was Cameron van der Burgh, South African and the reigning champion. His time was 58.69. Or, to put it technically, light years behind.

Add the name of Adam Peaty, also the three-time world champion, to a small band of British men to have won Olympic titles: Adrian Moorhouse in 1998, Duncan Goodhew in 1980, David Wilkie in 1976 and then you have to go back through the pages of history to Frederick Holman and Henry Taylor in 1908 and John Jarvis in 1900.

In fact Peaty, who is 6ft 3in tall and weighs 13st 5lb, became the first British man to win an Olympic gold medal in the pool since Moorhouse won the same event in Seoul, South Korea, 28-years ago. 

Moorhouse was at the poolside watching in admiration as his own golden time of 1.02.04 blitzed by more than four seconds.

Peaty started the race excellently and once he asserted his authority in the race the result was never in doubt

The rest of the swimmers in the final could not get anywhere near the level set by the 21-year-old phenomenon

The Olympic crown completed a full set of medals for Peaty - he already has won two Commonwealth golds, eight European golds and three world golds plus three world records 

The Rio win marks a remarkable transformation for Peaty in just four years and owes a lot to the London Olympics in 2012. His appearance here is one of the most positive legacies of that Games. 

For he was preparing to go out and get drunk in a field with some friends when events in London were taking place. Scrolling through his phone, he saw the results coming in from the Olympic pool and spotted the name of a friend, Craig Benson.

'That was the second it all changed,' said Peaty. 'I thought, "I am going to do everything I can to get to Rio".' From being 98 per cent committed, he went to 100.' 

Apparently swimming conversations are banned at home in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, where he lives with his mother Caroline, a nursery manager, and his father Mark, a caretaker at a local supermarket. 

It was Mrs Peaty who made many sacrifices to get him where he is, driving at 4.30am to get him to training in Derby. She would then go to work, and repeat the taxi exercise in the evening. It had not been a promising start. 

Put in the bath as a toddler, he stood up and yelled. At the local swimming pool his mother was so heartbroken by his screams that she asked a friend to look after him instead. 

There was clear water between Peaty and his closest challengers as a true swimming and an Olympic great was born

Three-time world champion Peaty has joined a small group of British athletes to win Olympic titles

'It was really hard going, I'd have given up many a time,' Mrs Peaty recently told the Radio Times.

'I'd get up at four in the morning, drive him 40 minutes to Derby, sit and wait two hours while he was training, or go to Tesco, then drive him back again and do a full day's work as a nursery manager. Then we'd do it again in the evening.

'I've always hated driving. My husband doesn't drive, and I was so tired all the time. 

'But Adam's willpower was stronger than mine and he'd say, "Come on Mum, no staying in bed".'

Even more amazingly, Peaty overcame a fear of water to conquer it. He screamed in the bath as a toddler.

So heartfelt were his protests that his mother was upset enough to ask a friend to take him to the local pool instead of her.

Credit, too, to his coach Mel Marshall, a fine freestyle swimmer and a better alchemist, with whom Peaty has struck up a close bond of trust and respect.

Peaty's mother had never flown before she set off to Rio this week with the younger members of the family and friends, including Peaty's girlfriend, Anna Zair, to watch him here. They held up a sign that read: 'Go Peaty for GB.' 

Peaty's father Mark (right) mother Caroline (left) and girlfriend Anna Zair were in attendance to witness history

'He is clearly one of those people, a bit like Usain Bolt, who is that much better than everyone else,' said former swimming champion Mark Foster

And his grandmother, Mavis, was watching at home in Uttoxeter, where the Union Flag bunting was up. She is into Twitter, aged 74, and has expressed her pride in a succession of 140-word messages. 

Peaty's day started with a bowl of granola – the breakfast of modern champions, it seems. 

He finished it with praise ringing in his ears. Mark Foster, the six-time world champion, was effusive. 

'I have never seen a swimmer dominate like that,' said Foster. 'I have never seen that at any championships.

'He is clearly one of those people, a bit like Usain Bolt, who is that much better than everyone else. He is doing something better than the rest. That is not just training hard, because everyone trains hard. Clearly, he is better technically than other people.

'The traditional breaststroke kick is more like a frog. What he is doing is more like a squat-type motion.

'Historically what you find with swimmers and athletes is that when someone makes a big jump it is because they will be doing something technically inventive. It is not cheating.'

Six-time world champion Mark Foster was full of praise for Peaty and likened him to Jamaican superstar Usain Bolt

Foster said Peaty 'is clearly one of those people, a bit like Usain Bolt, who is that much better than everyone else'

Peaty set his mind fully on swimming because he was envious of his friend Craig Benson, who competed at London 

What a journey it has been for Peaty. He only set his mind to swimming 100 per cent when he heard that a friend of his, Craig Benson, was competing at London and felt a pang of envy. That, he recalled, was his 'lightbulb' moment.

So here was this youngster of whom his mother recalled: 'He hated swimming lessons. And at the seaside he was just a rock-pooler – he wouldn't go into the sea.'

Now here he was, at 6ft 3in, the master of water, an Olympic champion from another planet called.