Olympic champion Daniel Wiffen has admitted he felt terrible in the middle of his historic race on Tuesday but said he then got into his stroke and focused on the final 50m, during which he surged clear to claim gold.
“I was really just trying to focus in on myself,” he told RTÉ radio’s Today show. He said he that after overcoming his nerves he got into “a new gear”.
The swimmer joked that he had slept with his gold medal on one side of the bed – but only got four hours of sleep following his celebrations. He said Irish Olympic medals wins – with his triumph following Mona McSharry’s bronze in the women’s 100 breaststroke on Monday – were likely to inspire a new generation of swimmers. “It really shows that if you really believe in it, you can do that. I think that’s why I’ve got ‘dream big’ tattooed on my arm, because that’s what I did.”
When asked about the gestures he made before and after his race on Tuesday, Wiffen explained the first gesture was intended to ease his nerves and represented him writing his name in the history books. The second one represented a phone – he had celebrated the same way at the World Championships.
The agonising story of how two Irish sailors lost out on an Olympic medal
Sonia O’Sullivan: A home victory would be worth so much more to the Dublin Marathon than course records
Daniel Wiffen finds inspiration from Joyce on the next stage of his swimming odyssey
After the Olympics, athletes face a further tough challenge: the comedown
His next goal is to rest before attempting to add another gold medal to his collection, he said. “I’m pretty tired right now, but I’ve got a good couple of days to get the recovery in and get ready for heats on Saturday,” said Wiffen. “And the 1,500m is my favourite event. That’s the one [for which] I always wanted to come into this Olympics with a good chance.
“It’s going to be hard not to take gold when you’ve already taken it at the 800m. So, all right, we’re going to aim for it. You know any Olympic medal is amazing. I mean, we never had a male Olympic medal before in swimming, so, we’ve already got one gold. Why not get another?” The swimmer said that he had worked hard and he would not be “coming out and saying that I’m going for this medal” if he had not put in the effort.
“Every day I’m in the pool grinding, I’m making sure that I’m the hardest worker that anybody in the world has ever seen. That’s why I’m able to come out and say and then produce the results on the day. It’s just a matter of putting the work in.” He said his twin, Nathan, was his biggest supporter and also his biggest critic. “He’s always going to have my back. And last night definitely he was bigging me up before the race.”
The winner’s delighted mother, meanwhile, reflected on an “electric’ night in Paris and said “It’s lovely to say you’re the mum of an Olympian”.
“We’re over the moon,” Rachel Wiffen told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland on Wednesday while Daniel’s father, Jonathan, said they were “still reeling” from their son’s achievement. The family had spent the night celebrating with staff from Swim Ireland.
The Wiffens said they woke on Wednesday to numerous messages of congratulations from family, friends and acquaintances. “We’re only getting to see them now, so it’s making me very emotional,” said Ms Wiffen.
The family had been “quite calm” during the race, she said. The atmosphere was “electric” but at about the 400m stage she admitted she had “a bit of a wobble” and she did not know how the race was going to go. “I knew it was going to be close.” The last race that his parents had attended was in Doha when Daniel won in the World Championships after leading comfortably for much of the race. “As a parent, that’s the best position to be in, because you just know when they’re that far in front, it’s definitely going to be a win.”
When the whole family embraced Daniel after his win, Ms Wiffen said she told her son that they were very proud of him. She said she had been surprised at the weight of the Olympic medal.
“I would have been happy with a medal of any colour, but deep down we wanted gold.. He was quite clear in his interviews [before the race] that he wanted gold. You don’t go into a race to lose.””
