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Paris 2024: Daniel Wiffen ice cold as Olympic zenith carried on commentary wave

Updated / Wednesday, 31 Jul 2024 12:39
Daniel Wiffen celebrates with his medal at the Paris La Défense Arena
Daniel Wiffen celebrates with his medal at the Paris La Défense Arena

If Monday at Versailles evoked images of mirages, Tuesday in Paris was an even greater assault on the senses, with temperatures in the city peaking at 35 degrees Celsius. It felt hotter than that though.

So having sizzled in the early afternoon heat of the Yves du Manoir stadium's secondary field for the Irish men’s hockey team’s third pool match against India, an immediate trip up to La Defense Arena sounded like a welcome idea.

Indeed, the Olympic swimming pool did briefly seem like a tempting place to jump into to cool off whilst recording a piece-to-camera poolside.

But once that temptation was suppressed with greater difficulty than expected, off one went to sit down next to RTÉ Sport’s man on the mic John Kenny high up in the commentary booth.

It was still on the warm side as the evening’s swim programme progressed.

But then in stepped the coldest-blooded person in the entire arena. The roll call for the men’s 800m freestyle final was underway and the swimmer in lane four was under no illusion about what he had in store for everyone.

Daniel Wiffen, the reigning 800m and 1500m world champion motioned to scribble nonchalantly onto his hand with an imaginary pen, a promise to write a slice of history in the minutes to come.

Spoiler alerts can be dispensed with given the whole country knows what happened next and speaking to his proud parents after his historic Olympic gold medal win just outside the venue, father Jonathan said he had the utmost confidence in his son when he saw how he stepped up to the plate pre-race.

"He was confident. (Daniel's twin) Nathan said to me he didn't know how the race would go, whether it would go really fast or be really tight," he said.

"But I looked at it and thought, 'he's going to go for it', and the first turn was always third, he always comes third in the first turn and after that he settled in and he started creeping in and getting closer and closer and I'm thinking, 'Oh?' But I calmed down and towards the end, we were all on our feet screaming."

To be perfectly honest, it wasn't newfound confidence from the Armagh man. Two weeks to the day earlier, this writer interviewed him at the Crowne Plaza at Blanchardstown where he told me, "you're going to see a new Daniel Wiffen in Paris, so it's going to be great for everybody to watch and I really hope I put on a show".

And there was the omen that he had laughed about regarding the fact that his birthday - he and his twin just turned 23 a fortnight ago - falls on Bastille Day, a date intimately connected with the French capital that he was about to take by storm.

As he stepped up to the edge of the pool, a crowd had been drawn. The customary tricolours that have been visible wherever the Irish athletes have been competing, were on show again, in different pockets around the stadium.

We had extra company in the commentary booth too by the start of the race with RTÉ boxing analyst Eric Donovan among those arriving with a premonition that a chapter of Irish history was in the making.

And as the race ticked towards halfway and Wiffen remained right in the mix for gold, twin targets formed. One eye was employed to follow Wiffen's progress to the front but the other eye was trained on having a camera lens to the left on John as his commentary revved up for the finale.

Transfixed by and intertwined with the arrow of intent embodied by Wiffen in the pool below, his words elevated the gripping final stretch: "It's going to be a gold medal for Ireland, in lane number four, DANIEL WIFFEN STRIKES GOLD..."

A real pinch yourself moment. And then the dam broke. Wiffen, who had been all coolness personified, shed a tear on the podium as he got the medal he had been so tipped for and heard Amhrán na bhFiann ring out and the tricolour raised, an emotional interlude for everyone in the venue connected to the country.

As Wiffen told Paul O'Flynn: "I ain't much of a crier but I did shed a lot of tears there. You never really see me cry so it's a big achievement for that to be fair."

As for his delighted mother Rachel, who described the whole experience as "absolutely electric", what was also shed beyond any tears of joy was a contact lens in the moment of triumph.

"My contact lens stayed in until the end but then at the end I didn't see anything. I was totally blind really."

Contact lenses in or out, Irish sports fans have been able to witness the unprecedented feat of back-to-back Olympic medals in the pool, first with the sheer thrill of Mona McSharry's bronze on Monday and now Wiffen to add his name on a golden list where the likes of Katie Taylor, Paul O'Donovan, Fintan McCarthy and others have etched themselves for time infinitum. A privileged to witness first hand. Now to cool off...

Watch the 2024 Olympic Games with 14 hours of televised action on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player each day. Listen to extensive radio coverage on RTÉ Radio 1 and 2fm's Game On and follow each moment from Paris on RTÉ.ie, the RTÉ News app and all RTÉ digital platforms. Listen to the daily RTÉ Sport Olympics Podcast.

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