Daniel Wiffen finishes Olympics with nod to history even as he makes more of it

GAVE IT A GO: Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen after finishing 18th in his first 10km. Picture: ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne

The days of the have-a-go sportsman and woman are supposed to be a thing of the past. Consigned to history with cotton swimming shorts, cinder tracks and the magic sponge. Daniel Wiffen is an Olympic champion but he revived some of that spirit in the River Seine on Friday morning.

The Magheralin man had signposted his intention to take on the 10k Open Water swim from a good distance out. He could have easily begged a leave of absence. The water quality was a constant source of concern through the Games. No-one would have batted an eyelid.

Wiffen had won his gold medal in the 800m freestyle ten days earlier. The bronze he claimed in the 800m free had been bagged last Monday. He’d done more than enough, he’d earned his rewards and his acclaim and his rest, but he followed through and he saw it out.

The long-distance pool races are brutal tests of endurance, physically and mentally, but he had years of experience in both before he pitched up in Paris. He was a double world champion, for God’s sake. He was built for that sort of stuff.

The marathon swim was something else, new ground, with its currents and almost 30 other men swinging arms and legs as they jostled for positions. He was hardly in the water when he took a punch to the face. There were three hits to the head and a punch to the stomach.

He may even have pulled his groin at one point. And still he kept on.

That he finished 18th in a field of 25 was remarkable. Four of the starters didn’t finish. Of the handful who qualified through their efforts in the pool, Wiffen was the first to come in. John Rudd, high-performance director of Swim Ireland, put this in perspective.

“Find me a guy that’s never done something before, over a distance he’s never done before, in an environment that he’s never been in before - & still claims 18th in the world,” Rudd tweeted. “I’ve found the guy. A standing ovation for [Wiffen] – outstanding.” 

This is Billy Bunter stuff. The punter called from off the terraces to score for his local club when they find themselves a man short. That he didn't make the podium doesn't hide the fact that this shouldn’t really happen anymore at Olympic level.

Hungary’s Kristof Rasovszky, who took gold in a time of 1:50.52.7, came to Paris specifically for this event. He practised by training in the Danube, a river that can carry enormous branches and actual trees with it as it strips through cities like Vienna and Budapest.

We’ve seen this with our own eyes.

Team GB’s Hector Pardoe compared this to swimming on a treadmill, nice on the way down, but bloody hard work coming back up as they completed six laps of the course. “Like swimming in pure resistance,” he said of the current.

Gregorio Paltrinieri claimed bronze in this race in Tokyo three years ago, but in the more genteel Odaiba Marine Park. The Italian found this “really uncomfortable”, even swimming with the current, as he struggled to find his stroke and his rhythm.

“Then on the way back against the current it was a little bit better, but it wasn't me. It was a really difficult race.” 

Wiffen said similar, and is all but certain he won’t try it again.

He swam here because he wanted to become an Olympian in two sports – the Open Water is classed separately to the pool – and to get a picture of himself with the Eiffel Tower. He had talked of another medal as well, but two out of three isn’t bad.

He is the first Irish athlete to compete in this event and if that breaks yet more new ground for the next generation of wannabe Irish Olympians then it also establishes a very pleasing and symmetrical link between these Games and the hosting here in 1924.

There is something elemental about this event. Take away the Olympic paraphernalia and the surrounding stands and TV crews and it is largely the same pursuit that drew thousands of spectators to the banks of the Tiber in Roman times.

There is something innately fascinating about people essentially testing themselves against nature and that was captured by Jack B Yeats with his ‘Liffey Swim’ painting which won an artistic silver medal at those Games a century ago now.

Wiffen made more history here, and tipped his hat to more of it.