Daniel Wiffen To Make Open Water Debut Along With 800 & 1500 In Paris As Ireland Team Is Announced

Daniel Wiffen: photo courtesy: G.Perottino/Deepbluemedia/Insidefoto

Daniel Wiffen To Make Open Water Debut Along With 800 & 1500 In Paris As Ireland Team Is Announced

Double world distance champion Daniel Wiffen has added the open water to his pool programme at Paris 2024 for what will be his first 10k race.

Wiffen, who won 800 and 1500 gold at the 2024 World Championships in Doha, was one of 12 swimmers to be confirmed as selected for the Games by the Olympic Federation of Ireland.

With two divers also selected, it is the largest swimming and aquatics team to represent Ireland at an Olympics.

The swimming team comprises six men and six women who will feature in 10 individual and three relay events at the biggest meet of all, running from 27 July to 4 August while Ciari McGing (women’s 10m platform) and Jake Passmore (men’s 3m springboard) will compete between 5-8 August.

Daniel Wiffen of Ireland competes in the 800m Freestyle Men Heats during the 20th World Aquatics Championships at the Marine Messe Hall A in Fukuoka (Japan), July 25th, 2023.

Daniel Wiffen: Photo Courtesy: Andrea Masini / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

Wiffen will be competing at his second Games following his debut in Tokyo three years ago albeit with vastly differing expectations.

Coached by Andi Manley at Loughborough National Performance Centre, the 22-year-old has – along with his distance double in Doha  – amassed a collection of silverware over the last couple of years that started with 1500 silver at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Last year he finished fourth in both distance events at the Fukuoka worlds before winning the 400/800/1500 treble at the European Short-Course Championships in Otopeni.

There he rewrote the history books with an 800 free world record of 7:20.46 to add to the European long-course mark of 7:39.19 from Fukuoka.

Wiffen heads the 1500 free rankings in 14:34.07 en-route to his Doha gold and also tops the 800 with the 7:40.94 that secured him the title in February.

Wiffen will also take on the open water in the River Seine on 9 August, the first Irish swimmer to do so, where he’ll renew acquaintance with the likes of Florian Wellbrock and Gregorio Paltrinieri by virtue of competing in the 1500 and with no other Irish swimmer having qualified.

Danielle Hill, Mona McSharry and Ellen Walshe will comprise three-quarters of the women’s 4×1 medley relay with the freestyle swimmer to be determined following the 4×1 free on the opening day.

That quartet will be made up of Hill, Erin Riordan, Grace Davison and Victoria Catterson with the latter trio all making their Olympic debuts.

At only 16 years of age, Davison is the youngest member of the Team Ireland contingent, across all sports.

Conor Ferguson, Darragh Greene, Max McCusker and Shane Ryan make up the men’s medley relay.

It will be a third Games for Ryan – who went inside the 50 free QT at the Europeans in Belgrade last month albeit after the Swim Ireland qualification window had shut – and he becomes the first Irish swimmer to compete at three Olympics.

Jon Rudd, Team Leader for the aquatics section of Team Ireland said:

“The largest team and the most competitive team ever, says it all.

“These athletes have been progressing, gaining confidence and delivering in key moments ever since we said farewell to Tokyo. We have numerous athletes here that sit amongst the very best in their events on a worldwide basis and there isn’t a swimming or a diving day that anyone can afford to miss.

“Our individual event athletes are all high performers in the truest sense and our three relays are at full strength. It’s a real pleasure to be able to name twelve swimmers to this team and to also add Ciara to the diving team alongside Jake.

“There’s talent, ambition and dedication across all of those that will be on the plane with us and we have an excellent team of staff to support them through the Holding Camp which starts on the 16th July, through to the competition days themselves. We know that the island of Ireland will all be behind us – and that spurs us on even more”.

Ireland team for 2024 Olympic Games (Swimming) – Paris, France

 

Name Home Programme Home Programme Coach Event/s
Victoria Catterson

 

National Centre (Dublin), Ireland

 

Steven Beckerleg

 

Female 400m Freestyle Relay, 400m Medley Relay (*)

 

Grace Davison

 

Ards SC, Ireland

 

Curtis Coulter

 

Female 400m Freestyle Relay, 400m Medley Relay (*)

 

Tom Fannon

 

National Centre (Dublin), Ireland

 

Steven Beckerleg

 

Male 50m Freestyle

 

Conor Ferguson

 

Loughborough University, England

 

Ian Hulme

 

Male 400m Medley Relay

 

Darragh Greene

 

National Centre (Dublin), Ireland

 

Steven Beckerleg

 

Male 400m Medley Relay

 

Danielle Hill

 

Larne SC, Ireland

 

Peter Hill

 

Female 100m Backstroke, 50m Freestyle, 400m Freestyle Relay & 400m Medley Relay
Max McCusker

 

Millfield School, England

 

Ryan Livingstone

 

Male 400m Medley Relay

 

Mona McSharry

 

University of Tennessee, USA

 

Matt Kredich

 

Female 100m Breaststroke, 200m Breaststroke & 400m Medley Relay
Erin Riordan

 

National Centre (Dublin), Ireland

 

Steven Beckerleg

 

Female 400m Freestyle Relay, 400m Medley Relay (*)

 

Shane Ryan

 

National Centre (Dublin), Ireland

 

Steven Beckerleg

 

Male 400m Medley Relay

 

Ellen Walshe

 

Templeogue SC, Ireland

 

Brian Sweeney

 

Female 100m Butterfly, 200m IM, 400m IM & 400m Medley Relay
Daniel Wiffen

 

Loughborough University, England

 

Andi Manley

 

Male 800m Freestyle, 1500m Freestyle & Open Water 10km

 

(*) – TBC following Female 400m Freestyle Relay

 

Ireland team for 2024 Olympic Games (Diving) – Paris, France

 

Name Home Programme Home Programme Coach Event
Ciara McGing

 

Ohio State University, USA

 

Justin Sochor

 

Female 10m Platform

 

Jake Passmore

 

City of Leeds, England

 

Marc Holdsworth

 

Male 3m Springboard

 

 

Pool Swimming

Team Leader – Jon Rudd

Coach – Steven Beckerleg

Coach – John Szaranek

Team Manager – Fiona Burke

Physical Preparation & SSM Lead – Paul Talty

Performance Analysis – Kevin McGuigan

Physiotherapist – Robbie Smyth

Marathon Swimming

Team Leader – Jon Rudd

Coach – Jonathan Preston

Physiotherapist – Robbie Smyth

Diving

Team Leader – Damian Ball

Coach – Marc Holdsworth

Physiotherapist – Sport Ireland Institute

 

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Kanga1
Kanga1
30 days ago

I certainly hope he can medal in the 1500m Freestyle at Paris. A race between him and the new kid from Turkiye for maybe the Gold with Aussie Short to take Bronze!

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