#431 : He Quit His Job & Is Now Chasing His Father's World Record with Adam Wilkie
6/11/202631 min
Join Adam Wilkie as he embarks on a year-long challenge to honor his Olympic champion father by attempting to match his legendary 2:15 record in the 200-meter breaststroke. Despite limited swimming experience, Adam has quit his job to train full-time, proving that dedication can make the impossible possible. Discover his intense training regimen, the emotional journey of honoring a legacy, and the mindset driving his pursuit of greatness. Follow Adam's inspiring story on Instagram at Wilkie Swims and support his fundraising for SportsAid at inmyfatherslane.com. What's your 215?
00:12 The Challenge Begins: Honoring a Legacy
08:38 Training Regimen: The Path to 2:15
18:55 The Decision to Commit: Quitting the Job
22:24 Lessons from Dad: Life Beyond Swimming
25:24 Inspiration and the Journey Ahead
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:00
Welcome to the Effortless Swimming podcast, the show that helps swimmers and triathletes love the water, become a better swimmer, and live a better life. Here's your host, Brenton Ford.
Brenton Ford· Host0:10
Welcome to the Effortless Swimming podcast. My guest today is Adam Wilkie. Now Adam, thanks for joining me on the podcast. I'd like... I'd love you to share the challenge that you've set yourself and how it came about. Because when you sent the email through to get in contact, I was like, "That's, that's unique. That sounds really cool, and what a challenge it is." So uh, yeah, what's the challenge?
Adam Wilkie· Guest0:32
Yeah. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for having me on, Brenton. It's... Yeah, it's a real pleasure to be on as, as I... 'cause we were talking about before, I've watched a lot of your stuff, so to be talking to you is, is, is fantastic. And then in terms of my challenge, so my... I should probably introduce my father first, 'cause it gives a lot of the context to what I'm about to attempt. So I'm Adam Wilkie, and my dad was David Wilkie, the great British swimmer who won Olympic gold at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. He won, uh, gold in the 200 meter breaststroke in a time of two minutes and 15 seconds, and so he set that exactly 50 years ago this year, so it's, it's 50th anniversary of the record. But also, sadly, my father passed away two years ago, so this is very much my way of honoring my father. This is my way of dealing with my grief, and also just showing how damn good my dad was as a swimmer. This record, as I say, two minutes and 15 seconds, was set 50 years ago, but by no means is it a slow time. So basically, what I'm gonna try and do is see how close I can get as a non-swimmer. I'm 33, I work in marketing.