Daniel Wiffen dreamed of this moment all his life. Standing at the top of the podium and having an Olympic gold medal around his neck.
The twist is he didn’t think it would happen in the 800m freestyle but in his preferred longer distance of 1500m. Even Wiffen has the capacity to surprise himself.
But this is a man who also keeps living up to his own billing. He came to Paris to win gold, never shied away from telling anyone and he backed up those words in the most glorious way inside the La Défense Arena as he set a new Olympic record of 7:38.19 to win the 800m freestyle. It is, indeed, Wiffen time.
“It’s going to be really weird to say but I dreamt of this moment so many times in my head. I’ve gone over it in so many different ways about what’s going to happen. To be fair in my eyes I didn’t really think I was going to do it in the 800m because it’s not my favourite event,” Wiffen said after with the gold medal around his neck.
“My favourite event is the longer distance. And the 800m is obviously a new event but obviously I’m an 800m Olympic champion and it definitely feels great.”
A gold medal in his first ever Olympic final, this is the Wiffen way. For his walkout, he did the action of writing his name into the history books. He was still playing the showman. But he was nervous, he wasn’t as calmed as he looked.
“Uh, definitely not. The only voice I heard in the crowd was my twin brother Nathan’s. I think that’s what actually kept me level-headed when I walked out,” he said.
“And, yeah, it was just written in the stars. I said before here it was Bastille day on my birthday, 100 years since Ireland competed, there was also a storm tonight at 9pm. I said to my coach Steve (Beckerleg, national centre Dublin coach), I was like, oh yeah, we’re renaming our storm Storm Daniel.”
It was a fascinating race. Wiffen took-over the lead from Australia’s Elijah Winnington at the half-way point for the first time in the race.
Then Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri – in lane three next to him – took charge and Wiffen just sat on him. It was all building up to the last 50m and then is when Wiffen emptied himself into a finishing kick.
Tokyo gold medallist Bobby Finke took silver with Paltrinieri in third. In Wiffen’s assessment, it was far from the perfect race.
“So I had been training every different scenario that is going to happen. Normally I would only train one way and that’s to try to hold on, burn everybody out in the middle, but I knew that the Olympics is completely different and you don’t know how you are going to feel in the first 100m,” he said.
“Really my first 300m was absolutely terrible. My stroke was all over the place. I was just so nervous that I couldn’t get any stroke in. But luckily I had a good enough easy speed to keep it going, I was still in the race.
“And then, my goal was to keep building, keep building, keep building. Got to the 150m in my head, it went so fast so that was lucky.
“And then I was literally looking at Bobby Finke, that’s all I was doing. I was like, this guy comes back the fastest, well, not the fastest anymore. He comes back the fastest.
“I was like we need to have at least a body length on him. I was doing this weird loopy stroke to try to have a look. Went on the last wall turn, put my head down and sprinted the last 20.
“I was dying the last 20m and I’m not sure if you saw that because my arms were in so much pain. But I knew that the crowd was going to carry me in and that’s exactly what happened. I saw the red light on the block and then that was it.”
The double world champion has another job to come in these Olympics in the pool. He’s back for the 1,500m heats on Saturday with the final on Sunday. This is his favoured event. And boy, is he just getting started.
“This is 100 per cent not the end. I’m only 23. Peak age for my event is 27, but you saw Paltrinieri there in the last 100m and he’s like 29. Who knows what’s going to happen in the future, but I’m very happy today to say that I’m Olympic champion,” he said.
“Yeah, 1500m on Saturday. My goal is to obviously be back on the podium again and my goal now is just to get the recovery in. I will enjoy myself tonight.
“I will try to treat myself to maybe whatever they have in the village, I don’t know all that. We’ll see what happens in the 1500m, just get through the heats and see what happens.”
It’s Wiffen’s time indeed and he’s not done yet in the City of Light.