True to his word and with no apparent regrets, Daniel Wiffen has left his training base in California and moved to the National Aquatics Centre (NAC) in Dublin to continue his preparations for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Along with his twin brother Nathan, Wiffen had been based at the University of California at Berkeley since last September, before setting himself certain target times at the Irish Open Swimming Championships in Bangor earlier this month to gauge whether he was on the best pathway towards defending his Olympic 800m freestyle title.
Despite winning three events in Bangor, Wiffen fell well short of his target times, winning the 1,500m in 14:51.38 when he’d wanted to go “sub-14:40”. After returning to California to pack his bags, Wiffen has been settling into Dublin this week, Nathan also ending his enrolment at UC Berkeley to train alongside his brother.
“I did think California was going to be a permanent move, but that didn’t work out, so the plan now is to stay here until LA,” Wiffen said of his move to Dublin. “The Irish Open was kind of the confirmation, already in my head, that I wasn’t in the shape that I wanted to be in.
RM Block
“I felt like out there it’s a very laid-back lifestyle, you can tell the California thing. You kind of didn’t know what you were doing in the session. That’s what I felt like, it was kind of like you were having to push yourself.
“There wasn’t much guidance, there wasn’t much people criticising your technique. They didn’t want to mess up the Olympic champion, is what I felt.”
Before winning Olympic gold in Paris, and bronze in the 1,500m, Wiffen spent five years at Loughborough University. The 24-year-old also underwent surgery on his appendix last September after surrendering both his World Championship titles.
As part of his move to Dublin, he’ll link back up with his former Loughborough coach Andi Manley, while also working with Swim Ireland coach Steve Beckerleg at the NAC and Swim Ireland’s performance director Andy Reid.
“Basically it’s like an improved version of Paris, because I get to train here and it’s all very specialised and I’m not studying. I’m actually doing the same work I was doing in Paris, but at a better professional level.
“That’s why Nathan came back with me too, because we’re training together in Dublin, so that we can push each other on. Obviously, we know how each other works very well, so when we train together, and it’s just us two, it becomes very like straight to the point. We’ll tell each other how it is, and what needs to be done.”
Wiffen bounced back into form last December, winning three medals at the European Short-Course Championships in Lublin, Poland, including another gold in the 1,500m. With the Commonwealth Games and European Championships coming up this summer, he’s now keen to revisit the sort of times which saw him return from Paris with two medals.
“I feel like the environment I’m going into now is way more specialised. And it [California] just wasn’t as enjoyable as it was when we were in Loughborough. And it wasn’t the same as I when I was younger, when they said 7am dive in, everybody’s in at 7am. It’s not like [in California] I’m going to sit around poolside 15 minutes and wait to get in.”
Wiffen was named among the record-strong 26 Irish swimmers for the European Aquatics Championships in Paris in August, which also includes Olympic bronze medallist Mona McSharry and European Short-Course champions Ellen Walshe and John Shortt, and European Long-Course champion Danielle Hill.
Olympians Darragh Greene, Conor Ferguson and Victoria Catterson also return to international competition, with Nathan Wiffen opting to contest the open water event in the Seine before the pool programme gets under way.
