DANIEL WIFFEN HAS never participated in marathon swimming at any level but is going to dive into the Seine on 9 August for the Olympic 10k open water race.
The audaciousness of that statement is overtaken in his followup – that he’d like to medal in it too.
“Yeah, I’ve still got my sights on the marathon swimming,” Wiffen, 23, tells reporters after winning bronze in tonight’s 1,500m freestyle.
“I’m still going in with high expectations, don’t get me wrong. I want to be on the podium – still – for my first time. That would be pretty unbelievable.”
He tempers the message, however, making clear he knows that open water swimming is more about tactics than it is about speed or endurance, or even, training.
“It’s really just about the racing. It’s all very tactical. So it’s a different type of racing and so we’ll have to see.”
He wants to take a full 24 hours off from swimming before thinking about how to plot out the 10k.
“To be honest, I’ve got to go see my family tomorrow, hopefully meet a lot of people who I haven’t got to meet yet who want to see the gold medal and then probably get some photos going,” he says of his plans.
“The highs of winning a gold medal are great but then you have to put it behind you. After the 800m, all I was thinking about was when do you get ready for this 1,500m. And I didn’t get any chance to celebrate really at all.”
With a knowing nod, Wiffen tells a journalist to subscribe to his YouTube channel when she asks how he is training for the event.
However, he is not exposing himself to any possible e.Coli infections this week.
“If you watch my latest YouTube video, I posted me trying to practice going around buoys, but in terms of actually swimming in a river, I’ve not practiced it. I’ve decided that I’m not going to swim in the Seine until race day, I don’t want to have to deal with any illness before the race.
“It’s going to be a very new thing because I’m going in blind, it’s going to be a fun one. It’s probably better to do it blind.”
Fair f#@ks Danny, best of luck. Of course, if you don’t do well, our resident haters will simply line up to say that you’re arrogant rather than an ultra-confident young man with huge ability.
@James: well said
@James: Dead on James. Give it a go Daniel and sure what’s the worst that can happen? You might not get a medal? Remarkable young man.
@James: RTÉ swimming analysts have a role here as well not to hype up expectations of a podium. I know little or nothing about open water racing but I would think he has 0 chance of medal if he’s not done it before. Fair dues to him for giving it a go but it’s probably the taking part that counts here in reality. Let’s see.
@Michael Corkery: some of the rte analysts and commentators are shocking bad this year, their ridiculous levels of arrogance really takes the enjoyment from it.
@James: Let me preface this by saying I have no feelings about D Wiffen – good or bad. I don’t know him so how can I? Some posters (myself being one) suggested that for him, yesterdays bronze was a disappointment. When you proclaim pre-race that you are going to win and don’t, then it is failure as an absolute for that athlete. Secondly, guys like me suggested that tempering these pre-event proclamations might be more prudent, adding that confidence layered with humility is a more likeable combination. Please explain how this makes me a “hater” as you so eloquently termed it.
Fair play to him, but I’d have thought you would have had to qualify for these events, not just decide your going to give it a go at the Olympics?
@Kingshu: I think it might have been like that for John Treacy with the marathon back in 1984. I think he decided on the spur of the moment to give it a go. Maybe it will work out for Danny in the same way.
@Kingshu: I have done some search in online and the qualifiers we’re based of last year workd champs at the event, I can not figure out what DW path way to the event was .
I did see a piece where maybe you can QF by displaying a standard timed in a pool too.
I’m keen to understand more if the 42 can enlighten us
@Al: He qualified for the 10k by achieving the olympic standard in the 1500m.
@Al: try wiki, it’s not complete but it does explain it
Daniel Wiffen is probably our best swimmer ever. But going straight into the open water 10k without any real preparation and expecting to finish, let alone medal, is optimistic. The river will be an alien environment for him. The water is cold and murky. It tastes and smells different. You can barely see your hands in the water. There are currents pushing you one way at break neck speeds and the other like pushing against a scrum. There’s no line on the bottom of the pool to follow, you have to stick your head up mid stroke and try to sight the buoy. And then there’s fifty or so other guys bumping kicking and thrashing all around you, knocking your arms and splashing as you try to breathe. If he hasn’t experienced it all before, it could come as a shock.
@LPMcD: bookies have him at third favourite to win it, he also said he’d been practicing for it… even if he hasn’t, I’m sure that he’d know more about river swimming than the rest of us.
@LPMcD: He isn’t just any swimmer and I’m sure it’s not the 1st time he swam in a river.
Dan is a real Olympian ..not many of them left, he will be playing wing back for Armagh next year
Best of luck Daniel, you are not a quitter. You will still get a hero’s welcome when you come home.
Safe swimming Dan!!
God help him if he doesn’t walk out with his head held low and win gold in a world record time and tell the world that it was just luck that got him over the line.. otherwise the under achieving clowns here will be slating him for being an arrogant failure who hasn’t backed it up this Olympics
@anthony davoren: Literally zero people have in any way undermined or belitted his fantastic accomplishments.
Reminds of a guy who ran his 1st marathon in the Olympics in 1984 and got silver, John Treacy.