Tearful Daniel Wiffen makes Irish history with Olympic gold in pool

PARIS – Daniel Wiffen made history on July 30 as the first Irishman to win an Olympic swimming gold medal, shedding tears as the enormity of the achievement sunk in.

The 23-year-old hit the wall first in 7min 38.19sec, the fifth-fastest time ever, to be crowned 800m freestyle champion at La Defense Arena. The only other gold won by Ireland in an Olympic pool came at Atlanta in 1996 when Michelle Smith collected three.

Wiffen, also the first Irish male swimmer to win a medal of any colour, could not hide his emotions when the national anthem played as he stood on top of the podium.

“I don’t normally cry, so I really hope that nobody’s gonna see that. But, yeah, it did come out of me, and it’s obviously just a special moment,” he said.

“I’ve never heard that national anthem at an Olympics before, and it’s just crazy to say that it was me standing on a No. 1 podium here for the first time.”

Wiffen, who also won the 800m at the World Championships in Doha in 2024, came home ahead of American defending Olympic champion Bobby Finke (7:38.75) and Tokyo silver medallist Gregorio Paltrinieri (7:39.38) of Italy.

He took control at 400m after Australia’s Elijah Winnington, who was second in the 400m freestyle, went out hard but tired and was reeled in. Paltrinieri made a move at 600m and led to the final turn before Wiffen came roaring back to rewrite history.

“My first part of the race was absolutely terrible. My stroke was all over the place, I was just so nervous. But, luckily, I had a good enough speed to keep it going and I was still in the race. Then my goal was to keep building,” he said.

The Irishman paid tribute to his identical twin brother Nathan, also a distance swimmer who missed out on qualification for Paris, for urging him on.

“I tell you what, the only voice I heard in the crowd was my twin brother Nathan’s,” he added.

“I’ve dreamt of this every day of my life. I know that I seem very confident on the outside, but there’s always that little tiny feeling that, you know, can I do this?”

In other events, Australian Kaylee McKeown crushed American world-record holder Regan Smith to extend her reign over the 100m backstroke, while Britain capped the night session on day 4 by retaining their men’s 4x200m freestyle relay crown.

McKeown’s strong back-end pace made the difference again as she mowed down Smith and American bronze winner Katharine Berkoff to retain her title in an Olympic record of 57.33sec.

In the relay, the quartet of James Guy, Tom Dean, Matthew Richards and Duncan Scott kept the gold medal in British hands (6:59.43), beating the United States by 1.35sec, with Australia taking the bronze.

Britain’s late triumph was their first gold of the swimming competition and condemned the US to a second straight day without a title. Instead, the Americans had to settle for minor medals in all three events. AFP, REUTERS