Meet Adam Wilkie, the marketing manager trying to match father’s swimming world record

The son of David Wilkie (pictured) is bidding to match his world record (Getty Images)

For us mere mortals, the accolade of world-record holder is rarely nothing more than a pipe dream. But Adam Wilkie, a humble marketing manager from west , is hedging his bets on his own genetics.

Adam has quit his desk job in a bid to match the world-record time of his father, British Olympic swimming great David Wilkie, who stormed to 200m breaststroke gold at the Montreal Games in 1976.

The 33-year-old has given himself a year to try emulate his dad’s world-beating feat 50 years on, doing so for charity and in memory of David, who died from cancer in 2024.

"He would think I am mad because he knows how hard it was," Adam said. "He knows how hard swimming is and how much work he put in to get to that time.

Former Olympic champion David Wilkie (right) holding his son Adam (Popperfoto/Getty)

"But I think he would be proud that his son is trying to do something to remember him."

The bar set for Adam is a time of two minutes and 15.11 seconds, a world’s best in 1976.

Now training full-time with a professional coach, he will have access to the facilities and sports science that Aquatics GB can offer, even if he has never been an elite swimmer.

“I work in marketing, I stand behind this desk most days. I’m not a swimmer,” he said, admitting he was “scared of water” as a child. “I’m not an elite athlete. But what do you get if you put an average Joe in with the best at the Olympics, just to show how good they are? That’s kind of what I’m doing, and asking, ‘How good can I get’?

“I’ve got the genetics, but do I have the rest of it? Maybe not. I’ve always kept fairly fit, done sports, been in the gym, kept my body strong, and always had a good diet; it’s how I grew up.

“I also put that down to my dad: he was fascinated by sports science and nutrition. I have a good base fitness, but I’m not swimming-fit; that’s a very different beast.”

Adam hopes to travel to some of the pools his father swam in, including in Sri Lanka - where David was born to Scottish parents - as well as potentially Montreal, where his crowning moment came.

Through his journey he will raise money for SportsAid, who help ease the financial burden of chasing elite sporting success for talented young athletes.

David Wilkie won gold in the breaststroke at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal (Getty Images)

He will begin his challenge by setting an initial time at the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships this weekend.

"I'm going to be getting up to six, seven, eight sessions of swimming a week," he adds. "It's going to be all-encompassing. It's going to be the hardest thing I've ever done.

"It's going to be incredibly painful at points and there'll be moments where I'll sit on the side of a pool being like: 'Why the hell did I decide to do this?'

"But I'm trying to pay homage to my father, keep his memory alive in my own mind and test myself. I'm testing myself against the yardstick of the greatest man I knew, who was my dad."