Peyton Craig grew up idolising Australian swimmer James Magnussen. As a 10-year-old, Craig won a national breaststroke title.
On Friday in Paris at the Stade de France, the now 19-year-old Peyton raced the men’s 800m semi-final and went quicker than he has ever gone in his life, but missed the final. Still, he is poised to become a star. In the biggest race of his life, at his first Olympics and having only raced internationally twice before ahead of the Olympics, he made the semi-final and ran a PB.
“You can’t ask for much more than that really. Obviously being the person I am, it’s bittersweet, I would love to be running in a final but honestly, I delivered my best today and sometimes the best just isn’t good enough. So give me a bit more time, and I’ll definitely be good enough,” he said.
Peyton Craig of Australia.Credit: Getty Images
“I emptied the tank, ran a PB and you can’t ask for much more than running your lifetime best in an Olympic semi-finals.
“What’s really satisfying is I know I gave myself every shot … with 100 to go I genuinely thought I might have gotten past those guys.”
Craig, from Boyne Island in north Queensland, from will go to the world juniors from here and now believes he will win it. After swimming competitively as a kid – he still swims a lot as part of his training – he moved to triathlons, and retains a love of rugby league (he follows Melbourne Storm after meeting Billy Slater when he was young).
“My first Olympic dream was to be an Olympic swimmer, James Magnussen was my idol at the time. Then footy season would come around and all I wanted to do was play State of Origin for Queensland,” said Craig, who admitted he can still recite every word of the commentary from some of Magnussen’s biggest races.
“I’d say I’m still so raw to the sport [athletics]. So I know with a lot more work I can be really quite competitive on the world stage. It definitely lights a fire that you know, was already burning, but it’s just like pouring petrol on the flames.”
