Training Like an Olympian for a Year: Adam Wilkie's Tribute to a British Legend
7/10/202637 min
What would happen if you dropped everything, quit your day job, and trained like an elite swimmer for an entire year? Adam Wilkie is about to find out.
In this incredibly special episode of the podcast, we sit down with Adam Wilkie, son of the late, great British swimming legend David Wilkie. To mark the 50th anniversary of his dad's historic 1976 Montreal Olympic Gold medal, Adam has set himself a mammoth, year-long challenge: to train full-time and get as close as humanly possible to his dad's legendary 200m Breaststroke World Record time of 2:15.11.
We dive into Adam's motivations for this journey—using the pool to navigate his grief, retracing his father's global footsteps, and learning what it truly takes to be an elite athlete. With coaching from Lisa Bates at Chelsea Westminster and check-ins with Aquatics GB, Adam is throwing everything he has at this goal leading up to the 2027 British Championships.
Alongside the swimming, Adam is aiming to raise £215,000 for SportsAid—a charity that helped fund his dad’s career as their first-ever grant recipient.
To follow Adam's journey and donate to the cause, please visit: inmyfatherslane.com
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsScott· Host0:00
Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Propulsion Swimming Podcast. I hope everyone is keeping well. Um, this week on the episode, we have a very, very interesting guest coming on. Um, there will be listeners of this podcast who are very well aware of the name David Wilkie. There will be listeners of the podcast who are not aware of the name David Wilkie, because he is before your time. But his son, Adam Wilkie, is going to attempt an astonishing challenge, to be frank, Dan- Mm ... um, of going after his dad's 200 meters breaststroke world record in about a year of training. He's gonna aim for a 2:15.11 at British Champs next year. Now, Dan, what makes this challenge so interesting is how much commitment Adam is actually putting into a challenge of this magnitude.
Dan· Host0:54
Yeah, just for context, 2:15 is, like, 10 seconds off the current world record, and only 12 British swimmers this year have gone faster in the last 12 months. So it's, it's a monumental- It's a big challenge ... and a mammoth challenge. Um, but you'll learn this as you listen to this podcast, that it's not really about the time as much as it is trying to hit the time.
Scott· Host1:11
Mm.
Dan· Host1:11
It's about the journey. It's about what his dad went through, and trying to learn more about him almost through the training and the challenge, and it's almost quite inspiring actually. And it's, it's- Mm ... kind of getting people to see behind the curtain of what David Wilkie was like, 'cause he was a bit of a, a phenomenon at the time.