Gavin Cooney reports from Paris

IF THERE WAS any doubt that Daniel Wiffen would commit to his most audacious act yet of these Olympic Games, it was extinguished on Monday evening, as he was introduced to the crowd at the Games’ parade of champions at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. 

Though Wiffen already has two medals slung around his neck, he’s aiming for a third in tomorrow morning’s marathon swim in the Seine. 

“I was thinking, ‘Damn, I’m swimming in this river beside the Eiffel Tower later on in the week,’” said Wiffen. “After the 1500m finished I was like, ‘I’m really not sure about this’, but now I’m like, ‘I really want to swim in this.’”

The audacity comes from the fact he hasn’t actually done an open water race yet. So picking the Olympic Games as his first attempt would be the equivalent of jumping in at the deep end… if there was one. 

He has spent this week training in the river, building up distance. The race is 10km long, and he says he’s hardly gone beyond 2km in the pool of late. 

And while the Seine has passed water quality tests and the triathalons and women’s marathon swim event have all gone ahead without needing to revert to Plan B of being relocated to the venue used for the rowing events, it’s still going to be cold and murky and rough and unpredictable. 

He has a few reasons for wanting to do it. The first reason is the venue: if the race was taken out of the Seine, it was expected that Wiffen wouldn’t compete. 

And, of course, the mad man thinks he can win a medal. 

“Honestly, I believe in my head that I’ve got the capabilities but, because I’ve never done it before, I’ve got no idea what it’s like. It’s going in a bit blind.

“In my head I know I want to medal, but it might not even be up to me. You have a feeder who gives you the pole, that can mess up and then it can ruin your race. It’s not just down to me, there’s a whole team.

“Also you’ve got to be tactically aware because if you get hit in the face, you could end up getting put out of the race.” 

There are a couple of other first-timers lining up for tomorrow’s race including one of Wiffen’s training partners, Austria’s Felix Aubock. 

“I’m the only one who seems to be one of the favourites to get a medal who is doing it for the first time,” he says, “which is a bit weird.” 

But, delightfully, Wiffen is also racing it because he wants to prove something at work.

“I train with open water swimmers all the time and, honestly, I think I train a lot harder than a lot of them,” says Wiffen.

“The only thing that’s not going my way is I don’t know if I can concentrate for two hours, but we’ll see.

“Also, it’s an extra Olympic event. I want to be a two-sport Olympian, I don’t know if we’ve ever had one of those before. Maybe people say it’s not two different sports but it is — I had to get two accreditations!” 

He has had some advice, including from another training partner, Hector Pardoe, who has advised Wiffen on the food he should get during the race. That food is given to swimmers via a long pole, held outstretched by a team member standing on a floating pontoon. 

Pardoe can also advise Wiffen on the harshness of the event: he did not finish the event at Tokyo after the nose piece of his goggles snapped after contact with another swimmer and cut his eye. 

There are a couple of recognisable names going alongside Wiffen in the water, including the Italian Gregorio Paltrinieri, who won bronze behind Wiffen in the 800m freestyle at the Games but then beat him to silver in the 1500m final. Paltrinieri won bronze in the event in Tokyo, with Germany’s Florian Wellbrock winning gold in a time of 1:48:33. He is listed to defend his title in the Seine. 

But regardless of tomorrow’s outcome, Wiffen has already made a big impact outside of the Olympic pool. 

“Honestly I think we’re the number one sport in Ireland right now, I don’t see any other sport getting as many medals as we have, so we should then be getting more funding into more swimming pools, then get more children getting into pools daily,” he says. 

“I’m sure me and Mona [McSharry] both inspired a huge generation of boys and girls who are going to get into the pool. I’ve got so many messages on Instagram saying ‘I’ve gone for a swim today because I watched Daniel Wiffen win’.

“It’s just amazing to see. We just have to see what happens, hopefully we get more funding and it goes through the whole processing, and then we get more pools and we see more swimmers.” 

The swim kicks off bright and early at 6.30am Irish time.