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: 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
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| 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
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!