Adam Peaty further cemented his place in the pantheon of sporting pioneers last week in Budapest, 11 years after his first swimming gala at Dove Valley in Uttoxeter where his grandmother Mavis’s very vocal support led to someone having a quiet word.

Peaty almost did not get that far. His older brothers Richard and Jamie instilled in him a fear of sharks coming through the bath plug when he was a young boy, resulting in a very loud refusal to go near water, distressing for his mother, Caroline, until eventually a friend took him to a pool and he took to the water.

It would be easy to say the rest is history, Peaty having added a further two world titles and a silver medal in the Hungarian capital to his three golds from the previous world championships in Kazan, Russia, in 2015.

His success comes a year after he became Olympic 100m breaststroke champion in a mind-boggling world record of 57.13sec and it is the nature of his domination in the 50m and 100m that means he is becoming one of the world’s swimming stars.

The 22-year-old holds the top 11 100m breaststroke times in history as well as the six best in the 50m, with world records in both; his winning margins in those two events in Budapest were the biggest in world championship history.

However, it has been at times a difficult journey for Peaty and those closest to him, with sacrifices made and no guarantee of success at the end of it.

He has a very close team around him, with his mother, grandmother – Olympic Nan – and his coach, Mel Marshall, forming a group of strong women who are instrumental in his development and growth from teenage hopeful to Olympic and world champion.

It is a blend that works well for Peaty, a young man who is independent in word and deed.

“I think Mel is one of the strongest people I’ve ever met – just because she is so versatile,” he says. “She can overcome any challenge. She is a unique person in herself, not that we just have a unique relationship.

“She is full of energy, full of character but so wise and so – not cautious – but she knows where to step her foot and where to not step her foot until she is ready.

“That combination of my nan and my mum, and all the women in my life, I think it makes it easier for me to work with Mel. I think a lot of athletes prefer a male coach or whatever but I have worked with Mel for so long and we are so effective I don’t think gender is an issue at all.”

Peaty characterises Marshall as part friend, part coach, part mother figure and the best mate that keeps you in check with trust, loyalty and communication as their bedrock.

The pair came together when Peaty joined Marshall at City of Derby, where she was coaching when he was 14, but it was up to his mother to get him there and back from their Uttoxeter home for training most days before going to her job as a nursery manager.

I don’t want people to think this has been an easy journey – he fought every step of the way, it made him the man he is Adam Peaty's mother, Caroline

Money was tight and when they could not afford his first competitive kit there were donations from neighbours and family as Peaty became the focal point of community-wide raffles, tombolas and barbecues in an effort to allow him to reach his potential.

It has helped Peaty stay grounded, something his mother and father, Mark, emphasised from a young age.

“I think he realises [that] because we had such a difficult journey, where we had to fight for every single penny and where we made such a lot of sacrifice,” says his mother in Budapest with him. “We did it gladly, don’t get me wrong, but he realises how difficult that can be, so this is why he wants to give back. Give back to the community, give back to children that are not as well off as some swimmers where everything is there for them.

“I don’t want people to think this has been an easy journey for Adam – he has fought every step of the way, it has made him the man he is.

“Adam paid for our trip to Budapest. I know I have raised a good boy. It has not gone to his head, he takes everything as a gift, it’s brilliant.”

What next for Peaty? He wants to see how far he can push human boundaries and is looking to dip inside 56 seconds. He calls it Project 56.

“I think that is why it makes me so proud to be the world record holder. No one has ever been faster than that in the history of mankind, so to have a record is a massive thing for me,” he says. “The main question is how fast can we go? Will we stick on 56 for 100 breaststroke for 100 years? You don’t know, you don’t know what rules are going to come in and then people go 54?

“I think there has got to be a time that just no one can ever do but I don’t know what that is, I think it is going to be 55 or 56 but there has got to be a point where it stops.”

Adam Peaty competing in the men’s 50m breaststroke final in Budapest. Photograph: Martin Bureau/AFP/Getty Images

Looking on in Budapest was Kosuke Kitajima who won Olympic gold in the 100m and 200m breaststroke at both the 2004 and 2008 Olympics.

An idol of Peaty’s, the Japanese describes the Briton as “incredible” – tipping him to retain his Olympic crown in Tokyo in 2020, where he is also looking to add the 200m to his programme.

Kitajima says: “I can’t wait to see it. There’s no one that can come close to him right now. I want to see where he can take those records year after year. He is the most amazing athlete.”

Peaty treats Kitajima’s words with a mixture of boyish glee and caution, saying: “He is the real frog king for me and it’s obviously great to have that recognition from him. It is amazing.

“He is going to be backing the Japanese breaststrokers, obviously that’s natural. To have that and say that no one can get near me is a really humbling thing. But for me that is a very dangerous thought as well – I don’t want to put my feet up and I always want to strive to be the next best thing and have the next best performance. So for me nothing changes.”