Most of those fortunate enough to stand on an Olympic medal podium will tell you it’s a place that must be truly believed in for it ever to be seen, and rarely has any Irish athlete believed he’ll soon be standing there more than Daniel Wiffen.
Wiffen also believes he can win the gold, and if the 23-year-old Armagh swimmer can pull that off in Tuesday night’s 800m freestyle final he’ll join the shortlist of nine Irish names who achieved that feat in our century of Olympic participation. He would also be only the second swimmer after Michelle Smith de Bruin.
His confidence is not unfounded. Wiffen’s heat time of 7:41.53 inside the Paris La Défense Arena on Monday morning was the fastest of the eight finalists, giving him the prime fourth lane for the final.
He is the first Irish male swimmer to make an Olympic final.
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“It’s never comfortable, but it wasn’t at 100 per cent,” said Wiffen of his semi-final, where he took over the lead from just after the halfway mark, as the Australian duo of Sam Short and Elijah Winnington set the pace.
“I’m not going in there with 100 per cent effort trying to make the final. I’m there to get the job done and hopefully finish it in the final. I said before, any lane has a chance. I’ll be looking at everybody, see how everybody swims it, making sure I’ll be one of the best there tomorrow night.”
After the four heats, defending champion Bobby Finke from the US was only fifth with his 7:43.00, with Ahmed Jaouadi from Tunisia also laying down a marker with his 7:42.07, the second fastest of the lot.
Wiffen will also have to contend with Gregorio Paltrinieri from Italy, the 2016 Olympic champion in the 1,500m, who won silver in the 800m in Tokyo. Wiffen will also be aiming for gold in the longer event, plus the 10km marathon swim in the Seine.
He’s also won his last five consecutive championship finals, the 800m-1,500m double at the World Championships in February, two months after winning the 400m-800-1,500m treble at the European short-course championships.
“One hundred per cent I’m the fittest I’ve ever been, I’ve never been in this shape before in my life. The time didn’t surprise me at all, I actually thought I’d be a little bit faster, only 0.25 off an Olympic record and no Irishman or woman has ever done that, so that would have been pretty cool to get, but we’ll save that for tomorrow night.
“Any medal is good, it’s my first race here, it’s my first time being in contention for an Olympic medal, so I’ll take any medal, whatever colour, and then we’ve got another two races after this and I’m looking forward to the one in the Seine especially.”
After Armagh winning the All-Ireland football title on Sunday, he also believes a medal might be written in the stars.
“Yeah Armagh won, my birthday is on July 14th, Bastille Day, and 100 years since Ireland competed in Paris? It just seems everything is aligning, doesn’t it?”
The 800m freestyle final line-up (ranked by heat time)
1 Daniel Wiffen (Ireland) 7:41.53
2 Ahmed Jaouadi (Tunisia) 7:42.07
3 Gregorio Paltrinieri (Italy) 7:42.48
4 Elijah Winnington (Australia) 7:42.86
5 Bobby Finke (USA) 7:43.00
6 Sven Schwarz (Germany) 7:43.67
7 Luca de Tullio (Italy) 7:44.07
8 David Aubry (France) 7:44.59
