Co Armagh swimmer Daniel Wiffen ended Northern Ireland’s 52 year wait for an individual Olympic gold medal with a stunning victory in the men’s 800 metres freestyle final.
The 23-year-old Team Ireland athlete from Magheralin won the 800m Freestyle Final in Paris on Tuesday night and set a new Olympic record.
In what was a historic night for local sport, it was just the first of two golds for Northern Ireland.
Belfast swimmer and close friend Jack McMillan also received gold as part of Team GB’s 4x200m Freestyle squad as they retained their Olympic title.
But an hour earlier, Wiffen had stormed to victory with a time of 7.38.19, narrowly beating the USA’s Bobby Finke who was defending his gold medal from Tokyo three years ago.
First Minister Michelle O’Neill hailed both men’s success as “an historic day at the Olympics for local athletes”.
Stormont’s Deputy First Minister was among the first to congratulate Wiffen as Emma Little-Pengelly took to social media to post: “Amazing!! Well done Daniel Wiffen.
“Northern Ireland’s first individual gold since Lady Mary Peters in 1972! (and from Lagan Valley too!) What a result!”
Alliance leader Naomi Long also shared her congratulation online, adding: “What a stunning performance!”
Sport NI’s interim chief executive Richard Archibald expressed immense pride.
“After a 36 year wait Daniel Wiffen is bringing an Olympic gold medal home to Northern Ireland!” he said.
“At Sport NI we are immensely proud of Daniel and his achievements.
“We are proud to have supported Daniel at the start of his career through our National Lottery funded Athlete Award. His progress over the last few years has been incredible, with European and World titles as well as a coveted world record and now an Olympic record.
“He is an inspiration to us all and I am sure his win will encourage many young people across Northern Ireland to try their hand at swimming. With two more events to come the sky is the limit for Daniel and we wish him all the very best!”
Wiffen had made a gesture with his hands as he entered the La Defense Arena, and revealed the meaning after his victory.
“I was writing ‘I am going into the history books’ and that’s exactly what I’ve done,” he said.
The new Olympian expressed disappointment at his impressive time saying “it’s not the time I wanted” before adding: “But the Olympics is not about time, it’s about getting your hand on the wall first.”
The athlete described it as “pretty ironic” that the only voice he could hear cheering him on in the crowd was his identical twin brother Nathan.
Wiffen went into the race as the world record holder and was widely tipped as one of Ireland’s greatest gold medal hopes at the games.
It’s the first time that anyone from Northern Ireland has stood at the top of the podium since 1988, when hockey greats Stephen Martin and Jimmy Kirkwood were part of the victorious Great British squad in Seoul.
Before that it was Lady Mary Peters who won Britain’s only athletics gold at the 1972 Munich Olympics after winning the pentathlon competition – it was decided on the final 200m event with the then 33-year-old claiming the title by one-tenth of a second.
Wiffen ended 2023 on a high with the fastest ever 800m freestyle time at the European Short Course Championships back in December.
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He also secured 400m and 1500m Short Course titles after narrowly missing out on a medal at the World Championships last summer despite repeatedly beating his own Irish records at 800m and 1500m.
The world champion almost set an Olympic record as he qualified for tonight’s event, finishing in 7:41:53 on Monday, just a quarter of a second off Mykhailo Romanchuk’s Olympic record set in Tokyo.
In a big surprise the Ukrainian failed to qualify for the final alongside Australia’s Sam Short.
American distance swimmer and two-time Olympian Bobby Finke came away from last night’s race with a silver medal after failing to chase down Wiffen.
Meanwhile Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri was behind by over a second at the 750-meter mark to take bronze, despite using his signature closing speed technique.
“I’m not going to lie, I was looking for Bobby Finke the whole time and I was like ‘I ain’t getting caught last 50… I’ve been practicing my whole year for this,” Wiffen said.
“I was just looking and looking over [my shoulder]… I saw this is over, I’ve won.”
Wiffen described being referred to as a gold medalist Olympian as “amazing” as he thanked his family, coach and Irish teammates.
“I couldn’t to it without everybody, I am not alone out there,” he said.
“It’s pretty crazy. I have won everything… and now the Olympics.
“Now I can say that I’m probably the best ever so that’s just even better.”
Earlier, McMillan had competed for Team GB in the semi-finals earlier in the day helping the squad get to the final ahead of their stunning victory.
The 24-year-old, who previously represented Ireland in the Tokyo Games but switched teams for his shot at Olympic glory, put in a strong leg, securing a time of 1:45.68 to maintain GB’s advantage, before Kieran Bird and Tom Dean finished the heat in 7:05.11.
He dropped out for the final with Matt Richards and Duncan Scott replacing him and Bird in the line-up – but still leaves Paris with a gold medal.