My medal rivals are afraid of what I can do at the Olympics: Daniel Wiffen

Come the Paris Olympics, that could make all the difference for Wiffen, who’ll try to win Ireland its first swimming medal for 28 years.

“My (turning) times have improved so much that I’m now faster than everyone else in the field,” he says. “Every Tuesday we go in, check it out and make sure it’s still on the same pathway, chipping away and trying to get it better and better.”

From his head positioning to hand placement to exit and entry angles, everything is analysed, refined, improved. On his biggest training weeks, Wiffen puts in 100km (62miles) a week in the pool and he knows exactly how his times stack up against the world’s best.

“Just off training, I know I can beat them and I think that’s where the confidence comes from,” he says. “You do need to keep a level head.”

The 2023 World Championships taught him that. Wiffen was “pretty confident” he was going to win the 800m or 1,500m but finished fourth in both Finals.

“That changed something in me that it really made me more determined this season that I need to keep to myself, keep my head down and really go for it. Just stay quietly confident.”

Swim Ireland’s Performance Director Jon Rudd says Wiffen has “exceptional self-belief, one of the highest levels I’ve ever seen” but that it doesn’t “cross over into arrogance or conceit”.

Wiffen carried that into the European Short Course Championships in December 2023, winning gold in the 400m, 800m and 1,500m and setting a world record over 800m. What made that performance all the more remarkable was Wiffen felt ill the night before and spent hours vomiting.

“I knew I was going to swim the race, even if I was still throwing up. I wasn’t going to quit after winning two golds, and not round it out with a third,” he says.

Heading into an Olympic year, it made him a marked man.

“I’d say my rate of improvement is pretty scary for my opposition,” he says. “They’re probably looking at me thinking, ‘This guy drops time every time he swims’, which I find is quite an advantage because maybe it makes this fear factor of, ‘What’s he going to do next?’

“I’m just building off it. We always take something new to change every season and this season we’re doing the same. It’s like a little one per cent change and that one per cent turns into 15 seconds.”

In Doha in February, Wiffen will get a great gauge of his Olympic medal chances as he races the 400m, 800m and 1,500m at the World Championships. Reigning Olympic champion Bobby Finke will be missing, but other than him all the big rivals will be there.

“I like to think I’m a medal contender (in all three events). I wouldn’t do it for fun. We are preparing for it as a test Olympics. It’s the same schedule, the same amount of days. Hopefully it goes perfectly but if something goes wrong, I will have six months to fix it until the Olympics,” he adds.