Less than 24 hours after Mona McSharry became just Ireland's second ever Olympic swimming medallist, Daniel Wiffen followed her to the podium, claiming gold in the 800m freestyle.
Ireland’s second medallist of these games, the 23-year-old is also the first Irish male to pick up a medal in the pool, doing so with an emphatic Olympic record time of 7:38.19.
In a rarity for Ireland at the games, Wiffen’s gold came after expectation rather than just hope, and with the Armagh man still to race in the 1500m freestyle, as well as the 10km open-water swim, there may be even more to celebrate later this week.
Having won two World Championship golds earlier in 2024, there had been a weight of expectation around Wiffen’s shoulders coming into the games, but it’s not one that ever seemed to bother him.
Where so many Irish athletes are reluctant to lay their confidence out on the table, he has no such trepidation.
"I think everything in sport is to do with the mentality and I think I've probably got one of the best mentalities in the sport, in most sports to be honest," he told RTÉ Sport earlier this month.
"I definitely don't lack confidence. I've been told multiple times that I'm a most confident person. When I was younger I was definitely confident and that has grown as I have got faster."
He’s had every reason to be so self-assured after his improvements through this Olympic cycle.
Three years ago in Tokyo he made his Olympic debut, setting set new Irish records of 7:51.65 and 15:07.69 when placing 14th & 20th respectively in the 800m and 1500m freestyles. In the space of three years, he’s taken a cleaver to those times.
His current 800m national record is now more than 12 seconds better at 7:39.19, while his latest 1500m record of 14:34.07, which he set at the world championships in February, is an improvement of just above 33 seconds.
If he isn’t weighed down by self-doubt, he might be weighed down by the collection of medals he’s had around his neck in the last couple of years.
At the European Short Course Championships in 2023, Wiffen claimed gold in the 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle. His 800m included a world record, made all the more remarkable by the fact he had been up until 5am the night before the final vomiting with a stomach bug.
He continued that form into 2024 by winning the World Championship double at 800m and 1500m in Doha in February, in doing so becoming Ireland’s first ever male world swimming gold medallist.
Born in England, Wiffen grew up in County Armagh after his family moved to Ireland when he was two, and he and his identical twin brother Nathan joined Lurgan Swimming Club at the age of six, before moving to Lisburn City Swimming Club four years later.
The Wiffen twins remain training partners to this day, with Daniel and Nathan sharing accommodation at Loughborough University where they are on scholarship, while Nathan narrowly missed out on qualification for these games.
"I owe everything to Nathan," Daniel said in an interview with The Times earlier this year.
"I swim so fast just racing him. I’m really hoping he goes to the Olympics because we shared a room at the Euros for his first international and I ended up breaking a world record and three golds."
Training for such long distances in the pool requires a lot of fuel, and Wiffen estimates he’s taking in more than 7,000 calories per day on a regular training week, to fill out his rangy 6ft 4in frame.
In the little time he and his brother aren’t either in the pool or the gym, the pair are keen gamers, while they have also tried their hands at acting, notably appearing in the Game of Thrones 'Red Wedding’ episode.
The acting career might be on hold for now for the 23-year-old, who is now a superstar in his own right.
Wiffen doesn’t have long to soak in his medal success, with a second medal chance ahead of him this weekend, when he competes in the heats of the 1500m freestyle on Saturday, ahead of the final on Sunday, which he is expected to be among the contenders for.
After that comes the 10km open-water swim, which may yet be moved to Vaires-sur-Marne, west of Paris, due to the quality of conditions on the Seine.
The first Irish man to win an Olympic swimming medal will also be the first to compete in that marathon on the water.
And his have-a-go approach to the open-water shows that there’s a lot of self-awareness running alongside the self-confidence.
"I mean I'm doing it just for a bit of fun maybe. You can qualify for the 10k in the pool if you can get the Olympic qualifying time in the 800 or 1500 so I qualify and, since we don't have any open-water swimmers in Ireland, I thought why not have the opportunity.
"I train like an open-water swimmer so I'll just put my hand in there and see if I can get something out of it," he said.
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