Daniel Wiffen kicked, punched and hit in the Seine - and now ready to party (2024)

It's party time for Daniel Wiffen now that the worst and best experience of his life is over.

Wiffen's first - and maybe last - marathon 10k swim saw him get punched, hit, kicked and possibly tear his groin in the Seine before finishing in 18th place.

The two-time Paris 2024 medallist just hopes the photographers got the snap of him swimming past the Eiffel Tower that he wanted!

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“It’s the worst and best thing I’ve ever done in my life," he exclaimed. "The reason why it was the worst is because it was the most painful thing I’ve ever done.

"But, in terms of best, it’s because I’m happy to say I’m an Olympic open-water swimmer, dual-sport athlete, and a contact-sport athlete as well.

“I’d say the start was pretty bad when I got punched in the face, I got hit in the head three times, somebody kicked me in the stomach, I think I pulled my groin halfway through and, in terms of the last lap, I was just absolutely dead. That was the worst thing.

"I kinda knew coming into it maybe I’ll get a loose hand in the face but normally in open water races there’s about 100 people in them, so it’s a very small crowd already.

"I knew it wasn’t going to be as violent, I knew the pace was going to be fast. I’m quite friendly with all these guys, a lot of them swim 1500 in the pool so I knew a lot of them, knew what everybody’s tactics were. So it was kind of expected."

Daniel Wiffen kicked, punched and hit in the Seine - and now ready to party (1)

Asked if he got some retribution of his own, Wiffen smiled: “No, I’m not a very violent person so I wouldn’t be doing that.

"I’ve got no idea who was hitting me, but do you know what was great? I was swimming beside my training partner Toby Robinson the whole way and then he decided to put in a little spurt at the end to take me out.

"He’s only beaten me twice now in my career - once was in the pool when I started swimming with him and now he’s beaten me on open water, and probably the last open water race I’ll do as well."

After training in the Seine during the week, Wiffen finally made his mind up during the week to go ahead with his third competition of the Games.

The 800m freestyle gold and 1500m freestyle bronze medallist realised halfway through the six-lap race that he wasn't going to medal at the Pont Alexandre III - he could see the leaders splashing away 50 metres ahead.

The 23-year-old tried to stage a comeback in the third lap. "I was leading the chasing group and then nobody else decided that they wanted to push with me, it was just me," Wiffen recalled.

"I was trying to do a max 800m. I was trying to replicate the 800m final from the other day but nobody else decided that they wanted to push with me so then it was over basically.

"I’m not going to lie, it’s pretty easy to finish - you just have to, like, go slow.

"To be honest I got to halfway and I was thinking about getting out when I was really hurting but I saw that I wasn’t last and I thought, ‘Do you know what? I can just hold the position and finish the race’ and I actually finished higher than I did in the 1500m in Tokyo, so it’s only up from here.

"I'll never do that again. Well, never say never, if Nathan (his twin) wants to try one I'll do it with him...but I'll advise him never to do one."

Daniel Wiffen kicked, punched and hit in the Seine - and now ready to party (2)

The experience will be added to a lifetime of memories that he has accumulated in Paris as he became one of the stars in the La Defense pool.

"I'm very happy," he said. "In the pool I'm amazed with myself. I set my sights to be Olympic champion and I've done that and I got a bronze medal as well so I am the only Northern Irish athlete to win two medals at an Olympic Games - and, well, Irish athlete too.

"In terms of the open water I am very pleased with myself. I woke up at 4am this morning, which is one of the worst things I've done. To wake up then and keep going and going, to do my warm up and then get in the Seine. It's a very long race, a full two hours."

After a long two weeks, Wiffen is more than ready to have fun now and to take a long holiday.

"Right now I am going to go and party for three days," he smiled. "Then I am going to do the homecoming in Dublin, I'll be on the open top bus and after that I've got a homecoming in Magheralin on Tuesday.

"My friend’s coming over to Ireland, I’m going to show him around and then I’m going on holiday to Barcelona, Bali, Italy.

"I’m going all over, it’s going to be a lot of fun and then I’ll come back and start training again for the world short course championships."

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Daniel Wiffen kicked, punched and hit in the Seine - and now ready to party (2024)
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