DANIEL WIFFEN is targeting an Olympic medal in an event in which he has never competed — one which he admits he is also doing for “a bit of fun”.
The Armagh man is due to compete in the 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle, having won gold in the two longer events at the World Championships earlier this year.
But the 22-year-old confirmed that he also intends to race in the 10km open water marathon swim after his main events.
Wiffen said: “The 10k of the marathon swimming is on August 9 so it’s like four or five days after I finish in the pool.
“I’m doing it just for a bit of fun maybe.
“You qualify for the 10k in the pool if you get the Olympic qualifying time in the 800m or 1500m 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, I’ll put my hand in there, see if I can get something out of it.”
But his participation in the race in the river Seine will have more than just a sightseeing element.
He said: “To be fair, I’ll never go into a race without the attitude of trying to win it so my goal obviously is to try to come out with a medal.
“It would be amazing, I’d probably be the first person ever to do the open water with my first race at the Olympics and win it.
“I’m going in to see how the race pans out. It’s an hour and 45 minutes race so it will be the longest straight swim I’ve ever done in open water.
“My training partners are in it so we’ve actually got a crowd of people from Loughborough who are going to be in the race.
“I’m looking forward to it and the bonus is you get to swim in front of the Eiffel Tower which will be good.
“Maybe there will be a bit of fatigue.
“Hopefully I will have a couple of medals and that will boost my morale going into the open water.
“We’ll see what happen.”