‘UNIQUE CHARACTER’ Daniel Wiffen lifts the entire Irish swimming team.
That is according to Swim Ireland performance director Jon Rudd, who is hoping the sport can capitalise on its success at this Games.
Wiffen took gold in Tuesday’s 800m freestyle final, 24 hours after Mona McSharry won 100m breaststroke bronze. Ellen Walshe also reached the 400m individual medley final.
McSharry had hoped to make it into another breaststroke medal race but missed out as she finished sixth last night in her 200m semi and with an 11th-best time overall of 2:24.48.
But the Sligo woman is not finished in Paris yet.
There are hopes that McSharry and Walshe — along with Danielle Hill and Grace Davison — can also reach the medley relay final.
Wiffen, however, is the jewel in the crown as he targets further medals in the 1500m on Sunday and 10km open water swim next Thursday.
And Rudd believes the Armagh man’s willingness to outline his ambitions before achieving them makes him a breath of fresh air.
Rudd said: “He is a unique character, right? There is no conceit and no arrogance, there is confidence and self-belief. He doesn’t see why he has to hide it.
“If he thinks he can achieve something he will say, ‘I am going to do it’. The times when he doesn’t, he holds his hands up and says, ‘I’ll get it right next time’.
“It’s so refreshing. Sometimes you could say sportspeople these days, that enthusiasm is trained out of them, they come with the same homogenised reflections the last guy said when he comes and stands in front of you guys.
“He is completely different and it’s terrific. It gives you so much to work with. He is so relaxed and calm, and it’s brilliant to have him on the team and it brings something to everyone else too.”
Rudd was with the 23-year-old in the build-up to Tuesday’s final, when he held off American Bobby Finke to claim gold.
And the Englishman said: “I went to a little private pool with him, we got a car. He jumped in and didn’t stop talking, about this, that and everything. Some swimming, life stuff, university, family.
“I’m a dad of four, it’s like me sitting there with one of my sons.
“There was no intention of doing anything timed in that session. He said, ‘I just want to swim out, relax, make sure there are no aches and pains in my joints’.
“Then he got a little bit into the swim and asked, ‘Have you your watch with you John?’
‘Of course’.
‘Time me for a 100, will you?’
I said, ‘Really? We said we weren’t doing this’.
‘No, no, I need to know’.
“He gracefully slid up and down the pool in a ridiculously fast time for someone who looked like they were doing nothing.
“He had to swim around someone on the way back who got in his way.
“He said, ‘Don’t tell me the time, I’m going to guess’.
“He guessed wrong. It was faster. He said, ‘Is that a 1:02?’
‘No, it’s a 1:01’.
“He said, ‘OK, I’m ready’, and he was.”
POOLSIDE VIEW
Rudd has been in his role since 2017 and overseen significant progress.
He said: “We have raced abroad in hotbeds of international swimming for six years and at first some of the athletes struggled and couldn’t get out of their heats.
“But then they are in semi-finals. Then they are in finals. Then they are no longer in outside lanes.”
But he admitted there were still challenges to success, some of which still have to be addressed.
He added: “I felt Ireland had always done well on what looked like limited resources, not a huge number of 50-metre pools.
“The rural nature of Ireland always makes it a challenge for talented kids to find a swimming pool.
“It’s all very well these guys inspiring a new generation of 10,000 kids or 100,000 kids to want to go and swim but we need somewhere for them to swim
“You need a swimming pool in every reasonably sized conurbation on the island, right? If we don’t get kids into a swimming pool early it’s almost as wrong as not learning to read, write or do their sums.
“It’s not necessarily about the sport, it’s about this life skill. If that then turns into someone wanting to do this competitively that is a side benefit we are very happy to support.”