Rio Olympics 2016: Adam Peaty's grandmother #OlympicNan becomes Twitter sensation as she celebrates win

Adam Peaty reacts after beating his own world record in the Olympic final
Jeremy Selwyn
Hatty Collier9 August 2016

The grandmother of British Olympic swimming star Adam Peaty has become an internet sensation overnight after live-tweeting his gold medal winning triumph in Rio.

Mavis Williams, 74, has gained hundreds of followers after taking to Twitter to express her pride after watching her grandson become the first British man to win a gold medal in the pool for a quarter of a century.

Since joining the social media network when Staffordshire-born Peaty qualified for the Olympics, Mrs Williams has even earned her own hashtag - #OlympicNan.

Watching from her home in Sheffield as Peaty smashed his own world record and won the gold medal for the 100m breaststroke in the early hours of this morning, she tweeted: “Well you have done it @adam_peaty you have made it, your hard work has paid off.

"Congratulations to you and @massivemel. So proud love Nan x.”

The grandmother, from Uttoxeter, was introduced to Twitter by her daughter Caroline, Peaty’s mother, in April and has been chronicling his Olympic journey ever since.

Her bio reads: “Proud Nan to a World Champion Breaststroker.”

After he initially broke the world record in the 100m breaststroke heats on Saturday, she showed off some deft emoji use and posted: “What a race ooo I’m so proud.”

Among her other tweets is a pictured of Peaty in his Olympic uniform and a photograph of herself dressed in merchandise.

Ms Willams also tweeted a thank you to her window cleaner who helped decorate her home in preparation for the games.

She wrote: “I’m ready for Rio now thanks to my kind window cleaner who put my bunting up.”

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