The parents of Olympic champion swimmer Daniel Wiffen are "over the moon" with their son's gold medal triumph in Paris last night.
The Armagh man staged a storming final stretch in the men's 800m freestyle final to clinch gold at the Games in an Olympic record time.
His success marks a second medal in the pool in as many days for Ireland at Paris 2024 following Mona McSharry's bronze medal feat the previous night.
Having been presented with his gold medal, Wiffen said it was special to hear Amhrán na bhFiann play from the podium.
"I ain't much of a crier, I shed a lot of tears there. You never really see me cry, so it's a big achievement for that! It's amazing, I love hearing the national anthem."
His mother told RTÉ's Morning Ireland that it was "unbelievable" to be able to say, "you’re a mum of an Olympian, gold medallist."
She recounted that the family were calm while watching the race in the La Défense Arena.
Ms Wiffen added that they met the parents of US swimmer Bobby Finke - who ultimately finished in second place - before the race, which "set the scene".
"The race started and ... the crowd was just electric and then I had a wobble about 400m because I just didn’t know how the race was going to go."
"His last race that we saw was the World Championships in Doha and there he was just out in front and, as a parent, that’s the best position to be in because you just know when he’s that far in front it’s going to be a win," she said.
However, Ms Wiffen did not realise how close the end of the race was until this morning when she watched it back.
"All of a sudden, I don’t know what happened, it was just as we cheered and we knew he’d won and the next is I couldn’t see and my contact lens had fallen out," Ms Wiffen joked.
After the race "everyone wanted a bit of Daniel Wiffen", Ms Wiffen said, but his family "wanted him more than anyone else".
"Nathan had said to me 'I want to hug him first’ so we had to wait for Nathan to hug him too."
While congratulating their son he told them to feel his medal "and my goodness, I didn’t expect it to be so heavy", she said.
Ms Wiffen added that while they would have been happy with a "medal of any colour" deep down they wanted gold.
His father, Jonathan, explained that emotions were high during the celebrations last night but the best moment for him was when Wiffen hugged his brother Nathan.
"Because he has been with Daniel all the way, and it was just lovely," Mr Wiffen said.
"Nathan and Daniel, when they’re not together, speak almost hourly on Facetime and he speaks with his other brother and sister quite regularly."
Mr Wiffen added: "Nathan has been his training partner. Nathan’s season had finished at the European championships, but Nathan then went back in the water to continue to help train Daniel in Dublin for the pre-camp."
'Once-in-a-generation athlete'
President Michael D Higgins congratulated the Olympic swimmer and said it was a "wonderful achievement of which he can be so proud".
Taoiseach, Simon Harris said the swimmer's power and grit under pressure confirmed him as a once-in-a-generation athlete.
First and Deputy First Ministers of Northern Ireland Michelle O'Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly also congratulated Mr Wiffen on his win.
‘Crest of a wave’
Principal of St Patrick’s Grammar School in Armagh, Dominic Clarke, where Daniel and his twin brother Nathan attended, said they had always been clear about their ambitions.
"I think Nathan and Daniel might have been 15 [or] 16 when we did a number of videos in the school about up-and-coming people and the two guys were interviewed and, at that stage, they said they would like to go to the Olympics and Paris was their target.
"I look forward to digging that interview out again and presenting it to the two boys because now - here we are - that reality has set in and not only is Daniel Olympic champion, he's also Olympic record holder," Mr Clarke told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.
He added that everyone at St Patrick’s Grammar School is still "on the crest of a wave".
"It’s just absolute wonderful for primarily Daniel and Nathan and his other brother Ben who also went to St Pat’s - and also his Mum, Dad, sister and family.
Mr Clarke added: "It’s just an absolutely fantastic achievement and it’s just reward for the efforts he’s put in since he was a kid."
The swimmer’s trademark confidence was not immediately evident, according to Mr Clarke, who said that he was "pretty understated" and a diligent student.
"Our school, like a lot of schools, is dominated by Gaelic sports and the two boys weren’t interested in Gaelic sports, but they were highly respected swimmers," he said.
Mr Clarke praised the work ethic of both Daniel and his twin brother Nathan while they were studying for their A-level exams and also attempting to qualify for the Tokyo Games in 2020.
"They went to Dublin, they trained twice, and they kept an ear to the ground and kept contact with the school and the teachers.
"And on occasions they changed their 6am swim session to 5am so that they could be finished an hour earlier to get up to the school from Dublin to catch up the teachers who were good enough to give [up their time]," he said.
"There was very close contact between ourselves and Swim Ireland and we’re very happy. Ultimately Covid delayed the Tokyo Olympics by a year and that allowed the two boys to qualify and of course Daniel did."
Meanwhile, Swim Ireland’s High Performance Director Dr Jon Rudd Wiffen’s gold medal win "inspire generations" of young people.
Speaking on the same programme, Dr Rudd said he thanked Wiffen for what he had done for the next generation of young swimmers after his win.
"We know that Olympic medals are difficult to come by and gold ones don’t come around that often.
"He is thoroughly deserving of this because of his application and his commitment but the inspiration that this will provide to tens of thousands of young people for generations going forward is very difficult to measure," Dr Rudd said.
Wiffen's coach at Loughborough University said that the Armagh man swam "the perfect race".
"Lane 4 in an Olympic final, that’s not always easy to do," Andy Manley said.
"I’m just so proud of how he can step up, under that pressure, and execute that race strategy and it just worked. Worked perfectly."
Mr Manley added that he started believing Wiffen would bring home the gold medal in the last 100m of the race.
"It was just a matter of whether he could out-Bobby Fink Bobby Fink. That’s the phrase they use in America, 'you’ve been Fink-ed', well tonight Dan wasn’t ‘Fink-ed’, he did him," he said.
