Gavin Cooney reports from Paris

AND SO DANIEL Wiffen’s extraordinary Olympic Games ends with an 18th-placed finish in the open water marathon in the Seine and a resolve never, ever to do that again. 

“It’s the worst and best thing I’ve ever done in my life,” said Wiffen. “The reason why it was the worst is because it was the most painful thing I’ve ever done but, in terms of best, it’s because I’m happy to say I’m an Olympic open-water swimmer, dual-sport athlete, and a contact-sport athlete as well.

“I’ll never do that again. Never say never, if Nathan wants to try one I’ll do it with him, but I will advise him never to do one.” 

Whereas everyone has to stay in their lane in the pool, the open water is a free for all. Hence the contact. 

“I’d say the start was pretty bad when I got punched in the face, I got hit in the head three times, somebody kicked me in the stomach, I think I pulled my groin halfway through and, in terms of the last lap, I was just absolutely dead,” he said. “That was the worst thing.” 

It was a six-lap, 10km course and Wiffen talked us through his mindset on each lap. 

Lap One: Do you know what, we can win this.

Lap Two: Maybe, maybe we can still win. 

Lap Three: We gotta try to get into the place to win. 

Lap Four: Nah, we should get out.

Lap Five: No, let’s try make a move again. 

Lap Six.  Okay, let’s try and hold the position. 

“No, I’m not going to lie, it’s pretty easy to finish, you just have to, like, go slow,” said Wiffen. “To be honest, I got to halfway and I was thinking about getting out when I was really hurting but I saw that I wasn’t last and I thought ‘Do you know what? I can just hold the position and finish the race’ and I actually finished higher than I did in the 1500m in Tokyo so it’s only up from here.” 

Wiffen’s 18th-placed finish was 6:27.4 behind the gold medal winner, Kristof Rasovszky of Hungary. Oliver Klemet of Germany took silver, and Hungary’s David Betlehem won bronze. 

Reflecting on his Olympic experience, Wiffen said, “in the pool I am amazed with myself. I set my sights to be Olympic champion and I’ve done that and I got a bronze medal as well so I am the only Northern Irish athlete to win two medals at an Olympic Games. And, well, Irish athlete too.” 

At that point, Wiffen was asked for his view on Michelle Smith’s Olympic medals, to which he replied, “no comment.”

Smith won three gold medals and one bronze at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. In 1998, Smith was banned for four years by swimming governing body FINA for manipulating an out-of-competition drug test. She denies ever using performance-enhancing drugs, and still holds her Olympic medals.

“In terms of the open water I am very pleased with myself,” continued Wiffen. “I woke up at 4am this morning, which is one of the worst things I’ve done. To wake up then and keep going and going, to do my warm up and then get in the Seine.” 

With the Seine swim done and his medals collected, Wiffen is now going on the tear. And after a three-day party, he says, he will be part of the Dublin homecoming on Monday, and he will then be honoured in Magheralin on Tuesday. He’s then jetting off on holidays with his friends. He has Barcelona, Italy, and Bali on the itinerary before he returns to Loughborough University to prepare for the world short course championships.

Wiffen has had an astonishing Olympic Games, and he’s made his case as the avatar for a new generation of Irish sports fans. Primarily because he did this morning’s swim for the content. 

“The only reason I wanted to do open water was because I wanted a photo next to the Eiffel Tower and the Seine,” he said. “I actually hope I got the photo, I’ve no idea if we did.”