HIT US WIFF THE FUNDING
Swimming now Ireland’s No.1 sport says Dan
OLYMPIC hero Daniel Wiffen has called on the Government to throw money into swimming after insisting it is now Ireland’s No.1 sport.
In medal terms, Wiffen is on the money.
The 23-year-old contributed gold and bronze to Ireland’s record haul in Paris, while his colleague Mona Mcsharry claimed the country’s first medal of the Games.
That trumps two for rowing, one for boxing and one for gymnastics.
Wiffen is even hoping to secure a fourth medal for swimming this morning, in the 10,000m open water marathon although he claims it is a separate event entirely.
“It’s an extra Olympic event,” he said. “I want to be a twosport Olympian, I don’t know if we’ve ever had one of those before. Maybe people say it’s not two different sports but it is, I had to get two accreditations!”
On a more serious note, however, Wiffen wants his sport to be rewarded for the Paris success.
It is telling that both Wiffen and Mcsharry (inset) have gone to universities abroad to develop into Olympic medal winning swimmers – Wiffen to Loughborough, Mcsharry to Tennessee.
“Honestly, I think we’re the No.1 sport in Ireland right now,” he said.
“I don’t see any other sport getting as many medals as we have. So we should then be getting more funding into more swimming pools, then get more children getting into pools daily.
“I’m sure me and Mona inspired a huge generation of boys and girls who are going to get into the pool. I’ve got so many messages on Instagram saying, ‘I’ve gone for a swim today because I watched Daniel Wiffen win’.
“It’s just amazing to see. We just have to see what happens, hopefully we get more funding and it goes through the whole process and then we get more pools and we see more swimmers. I think we’re sick of being this nation that just settles for making finals. Everybody just wants to put the nation out there.
“We came away with three medals. In terms of the amount of money that’s funded into swimming, the value for money we get in terms of how many medals we got for how much money is put in, we also won that.”
Wiffen participated in the medal parade in the heart of the city on Wednesday.
The River Seine provided the backdrop and, as he took in the occasion, his mind wandered forward to this morning and his first attempt at the marathon swim.
“I was thinking, ‘Damn, I’m swimming in this river beside the Eiffel Tower later on in the week’,” he said. “After the 1500 finished I was like, ‘I’m really not sure about this’, and after the parade I was like, ‘I really want to swim in this’.”
Winning the 800m gold took it out of the Armagh athlete for the 1500, both mentally and physically. By Wednesday his legs were “fried,” Wiffen said, “the pool swimming has definitely taken a toll.” But he added: “I have to suck it up, I want to put on a good show.”
His training partner Hector Pardoe has been giving him tips on feeding out on the water and Paltrinieri has also been offering advice.
“I train with open water swimmers all the time and I think I train a lot harder than a lot of them,” he added. “The only thing that’s not going my way is I don’t know if I can concentrate for two hours. I believe in my head I’ve got the capabilities but I’m going in a bit blind.”