Irish swimming’s trailblazer Daniel Wiffen wants a world record

SINGAPORE – The dejection on Daniel Wiffen’s face was unmistakable as the defending champion touched the wall fifth in the second heat of the World Aquatics Championships (WCH) men’s 800m freestyle on July 29. His time of 7min 46.36sec was almost five seconds behind Tunisia’s Ahmed Jaouadi, who won in 7:41.58.

This was a far cry from the 2024 final, in which he cruised to gold by two seconds.

After initial despair, there was some relief as the 24-year-old Irishman squeezed into the July 30 final as the eighth-ranked qualifier overall. Just over a month before the meet, he was hit by appendicitis but chose to treat it with antibiotics, putting off surgery until after the championships.

He told The Straits Times at the WCH Arena: “I don’t feel the appendicitis, but I have to get it out after this competition. I held off the surgery until after the world champs because I wanted to give a good crack at defending both my (800m and 1,500m freestyle) titles.

“I hope it’s not affecting me any more... it certainly looks like it is, but I don’t know.

“That was probably one of the worst swims I’ve done in a long time. But whatever we are overcoming right now, we are going to come back stronger.”

Born in England, the lanky and bubbly Irishman’s brush with fame began at a young age.

As an 11-year-old, despite not being allowed to watch Game Of Thrones, he managed to snag a role as an extra in the popular TV drama alongside his twin brother Nathan in the famous Red Wedding scene. His sister Elizabeth had a more prominent role as Neyela Frey.

His swimming journey with his brother began when they joined local Water Babies sessions at just three months old and started competing at age six – Daniel and Nathan specialised in freestyle and backstroke respectively.

By 13, he made the national team.

Despite setting 800m and 1,500m freestyle national records, he missed both finals in his first Olympics at Tokyo 2020, and finished fourth in both events at the 2023 world championships. But he went on to break the 1,500 free short-course world record with a blistering 7:20.46 later that year at the European Championships.

He then claimed double gold at the 2024 WCH before going on to become the first Irishman to win Olympic swimming medals with his 800m gold in Olympic record time (7:38.19) and 1,500m bronze at Paris 2024.

“I was telling people for five years I was going to be the Olympic champion in Paris and nobody believed me at the start, but as we got closer, everybody was like ‘this guy is easily gonna win’,” said Wiffen, who has the words “dream big” tattooed on his arm.

Since his historic feats for Ireland, life has been “very weird” for him as he gets stopped for photos, even when he on holiday in Bali.

But he has remained down-to-earth, donating his entire £25,000 (S$42,900) Olympic Medallist Fund to his alma mater, St Patrick’s Grammar School, to build a new gym, enhance its sporting facilities and provide new equipment.

While all eyes are on the women’s 400m and 800m freestyle showdowns between American legend Katie Ledecky and Canadian sensation Summer McIntosh, he feels the men’s 800m is “definitely more competitive”.

Although he is not in his best condition here, it should not be long before he flashes his trademark two-hand W celebration, which stands for Wiffen and winning, again.

Eyeing the world records held by Chinese swimmer Zhang Lin in the 800m (7:32.12) and American Bobby Finke in the 1,500m (14:30.67), he said: “Breaking a world record is a different type of feeling because you’re the fastest ever, whereas at the Olympics, there are like nine other men winning Olympic golds.

“Everyone says the hardest thing to do is to win a world championships after an Olympics, and I’m up for the challenge.

“I think winning back-to-back world championships is going to be better than winning the Olympics for me.”