Olympic swimming results 2016: Adam Peaty wins gold in men’s 100m breaststroke

Great Britain’s Adam Peaty won the gold medal in the men’s 100-meter breaststroke in Rio on Sunday night. South Africa’s Cameron van der Burgh took the silver and the United States’ Cody Miller came away with the bronze.

Peaty also broke his own world record with a time of 57.13 seconds, which easily outpaces the mark that he set just recently during prelims. When it comes to this event, there’s little doubt about who is the best in the world right now.

This is Peaty’s first appearance at the Olympics after rising as one of Europe’s biggest swimming stars over the past couple years. It was van der Burgh who took home the Olympic gold in London four years ago with a time of 58.46 seconds.

The Americans, Miller and Kevin Cordes, came into the race with the second- and fifth-best times coming out of the qualifiers. Miller gets his first Olympic medal, and Cordes will get another chance at a medal in the 200m breaststroke, which begins its qualifiers on Tuesday.

Peaty came out with a monster performance during the qualifiers by breaking the previous world record. The 21-year-old clocked a 57.55 second time in the prelims -- toppling his old world record of 57.98 seconds -- then followed it up with another stellar swim (57.62 seconds) in the semifinals. And in the final, he took it to yet another level in cutting another 0.42 seconds off his time.