It may not have been the Olympic gold he was hoping for but Daniel Wiffen took the 1,500m freestyle bronze with another heroic effort at the La Defense Arena on Sunday. Long before the last turn he knew that another gold was out of reach, but he kept chasing, never surrendering his chance to step on to the Olympic medal podium for the second time in six days.
Wiffen’s bronze brings Ireland’s medal haul at these Games to a record seven, surpassing the six won in London in 2012.
Wiffen becomes the first Irish man in any Olympic sport to win two medals in the same Games, and the 23-year-old Armagh swimmer is not done yet – already eying up next Friday’s 10km marathon swim in the Seine.
It’s another measure of the brilliant trajectory of Wiffen’s career that this was tinged with slight disappointment. By his own admission the climax of the Olympic swimming programme inside Paris La Defense Arena belonged instead to Bobby Finke from the USA.
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It was his 800m freestyle title that Wiffen had claimed last Tuesday, Finke settling for silver, and the 24-year-old from Florida was not about to surrender his 1,500m as well without another proper battle. Only this time Finke came out and broke the 12-year-old world record, dominating from the opening lengths to win in 14:30.67.
“Overall I’m very pleased with my week, I wish it was reversed, that I won the gold on the last night and the bronze on the third day,” said Wiffen, his still buoyant mood however hardly dimmed at all. “Obviously we had some high aspirations coming into this week, I was able to secure at least one gold medal so I’ve got to be very proud of myself.
“I was just trying to secure bronze. But I was looking around a lot. My skills were absolutely terrible at the end as well because I was just on my arse dying. But you know, I’m happy. As I said, bronze medal.”
Silver went to Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri in 14:34.55, who won this event in Rio in 2016, with Wiffen holding on for bronze in 14:39.63, in truth never quite in contention to add a second gold here as Finke was simply peerless. Fourth place went to David Betlehem from Hungary in 14:40.91.
Finke was also looking to become the first man from the United States to win a medal in these Games in an individual swimming event – a rare scenario in their long history. His time broke the world record mark of 14:31.02 that belonged to China’s Sun Yang since the 2012 Olympics in London (and who later served a doping ban for tampering with a sample).
“I’m happy for the record to go, you know, it was a record that needed to be off the books,” said Wiffen. “I’m very pleased for Bobby. He’s a great competitor and everybody is very friendly in the field which maybe you don’t get in a lot of events. And I’m very happy that all three of us shared the podium again and maybe a different order this time in the 800m. But, yeah, it’s going to be a long, long couple of years of battling out for who gets a top spot.”
Wiffen admitted too the efforts of the week – heats and final in the 800m, heats and final in the 1,500m, 92 lengths in all – took a toll. “I think the week itself has been like probably one of the most emotionally draining experience I’ve ever gone through. I’m pretty proud of myself that I was able to walk out and put together two good performances in finals.
“And to be honest, I know I come across [that] I don’t get nervous, but I was like just shitting myself, honestly when I’m walking out every time. And I’m so happy to be done with because I don’t have to deal with these nerves for a long time now, until the next competition.”
As for his final medal chance in the Seine, the 10km swim being 200 lengths-worth in the pool, the plan for now is to go in there with no plan.
“Obviously it’s my first ever race so I’m still going in with high expectations. Don’t get me wrong. I want to be on the podium still for my first time. That would be pretty unbelievable. But we’ll see what happens.
“Open water is very tactical. It’s not really about speed or endurance or training. It’s really just about the racing. So it’s a different type of racing and so we’ll have to see.
“I’ve decided that I’m not going to swim in the Seine until race day, I don’t want to have to deal with any illness before the race. It’s going to be a very new thing because I’m going in blind, it’s going to be a fun one.”
