It’s all only starting now, Danny Boy. No matter how fast Daniel Wiffen swims in the 1,500m freestyle, or how much he might win by, nothing will eclipse that moment inside the Aspire Dome in Doha on Wednesday evening. At least not in my mind.
Not the moment when Wiffen touched home to win the 800m freestyle, completing his 16 lengths of glory to go where no Irish swimmer had gone before. Like all good things in life, there can only ever be one first time, and even better for Wiffen is the sense his gold medal won at the World Aquatics Championships won’t be his last.
Nor the moment he first celebrated it, Wiffen making another dialled-in gesture with his right hand, as you do, before raising both arms clenched aloft, then falling gently back into the pool in the realisation and perhaps relief of his achievement. He’d been promising this sort of performance to himself and anyone else who was listening since twice finishing fourth in last year’s championships in Japan, and this was a stunning denouement, his race execution entirely without fault.
The swimming world knows all about him now. Whatever was left of his secret, even after breaking the then-longest swimming world record on the books last December
Or the moment Wiffen seized on the medal podium about 40 minutes later, the gold medal now around his neck, alongside Australia’s Elijah Winnington, who won silver, and Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri, who won bronze, when he whipped his mobile phone out of his tracksuit pocket and pulled the two lads in for a selfie.
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He’d put a full two seconds on them both in the last 50m, and the look on the faces of Winnington and Paltrinieri in some ways probably reflected the thoughts of the entire swimming world also tuning in at that moment, as in “Who the hell is this kid …”
The swimming world knows all about him now. Whatever was left of his secret, even after breaking the then-longest swimming world record on the books last December, will be openly spoken about between now and the Paris Olympics, just over five months away. He may soon be spoken too about as Danny Boy, as his swimming mates at Loughborough University affectionately do.
Even better for Wiffen is the sense he won’t be bothered by any of that whatsoever. Paltrinieri is considered a god of the distance events in the pool, the 29-year-old from Carpi has already won 30 gold medals across the various championship stages, including Olympic 1,500m gold from Rio 2016, and World Championship gold from 2015 and 2022. As Charles Bukowski once said, the gods should be left alone. One shouldn’t bang at their door, or indeed pull them in for a selfie.
Yet it was Paltrinieri who afterwards identified Wiffen as one his main rivals come the Olympics in July, no matter what happens over the 30 lengths of Sunday’s 1,500m final, assuming they both progress.
“Elijah was at the opposite side of the pool,” he said, “I saw him at the start, but not at the end because when Daniel came, he was in the middle … I expected him [Wiffen] to be fast at this point of the season and for sure he’s one of the biggest rivals that I have.”
Wiffen’s reading of the race afterwards was also telling. Winnington, the 23-year-old from the Gold Coast, had considerably more experience, the 400m freestyle champion from 2022 already winning silver in that event in Doha. It was inevitable he would go out fastest before Paltrinieri took over the lead at 500m. Wiffen’s sense of timing, and his trust in it, was the ultimate show of race maturity because once he accelerated in front going into the last length there was only going to be one winner.
“I think I learned a lot from my 400m, at the start of the week,” he said. “I came seventh, and I really did that race wrong. I swam off everybody else instead of doing what I know best. So my goal was just to swim it the way I want to swim it, not let anybody else affect it. That’s what I did, I think it shows that I’m kind of growing up at 22 years old. And I love pressure, I mean, I did feel a bit in the courtroom. I was just trying to relax, though, and stay in my own zone.”
This is particularly telling because as around the running track, the 800m, and 1,500m events in the swimming pool are all about tactics and dealing with that pressure of expectation. Wiffen has a handle on both fronts, buying tickets for his parents Rachel and Jonathan to come to Doha, as a Christmas present, after they missed his world record performance in the 800m at the European Short-Course Championships in Romania in December, as they had to return to Leeds for a family wedding.
Not every 22-year-old would want their parents there, only this reflects the sense of family support which has been central to Wiffen’s rise over the years, the family moving from Leeds to the village of Magheralin on the Armagh side of the county border with Down, when Wiffen was four years old.
What is certain is that Wiffen’s moment has been coming for some time. Just trace back over the interview headlines in this newspaper and website
It’s worth telling too that some veteran swimming commentators are highlighting the fact several Paris podium contenders are not in Doha. Craig Lord of the State of Swimming has stated “such things do not take the shine off the swimmers’ efforts”, because “that was done the moment it was decided to hold a World Championships in February of Olympic year”.
Indeed, Wiffen didn’t have to worry about Bobby Finke from the US, or the Australian Sam Short, who filled two podium positions in both the 800m and 1,500m in Fukuoka. On the Wednesday evening when Wiffen won gold, there were also first-time World Champions in Siobhán Haughey from Hong Kong, Tomoru Honda from Japan and Sam Williamson from Australia, something of a record it seems.
What is certain is that Wiffen’s moment has been coming for some time. Just trace back over the interview headlines in this newspaper and website since he first qualified for the Tokyo Olympics as a 19-year-old rookie. “I feel like I can go stupidly quick”; “Ever since I was younger, my aim has been to break a world record”; “My goal is that Olympic gold”.
Wiffen has always talked like no Irish swimmer before him, from the moment he first arrived to his now first World Championship medal for Ireland, and the best thing about that is it’s still all only starting now.
