Daniel Wiffen Confirms Training Move Back to Ireland After Training at Cal

Olympic Gold medalist Daniel Wiffen has confirmed that he will leave Cal to move back to Ireland to train in preparation for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.

Wiffen previously hinted that this would be his decision, saying that if the Irish Open Championships did not go well, he would leave Cal and return to training in his home country.

That stipulation would come to fruition, posting a video to the Wiffen Twins YouTube channel titled ‘Everything went wrong at Nationals’, leaving the question up in the air whether he would actually leave the States and return home to train.

A BBC report and an interview with Wiffen in an Instagram post from Virgin Media Sports confirmed Wiffen’s return to training in Ireland.

In the interview posted to Virgin Media Sport, Wiffen explains that there is no bad blood between him and Cal, and that he “has some work to do, and some work to catch up on” now that he is back on home soil in Ireland as he prepares for the upcoming European Championships and Commonwealth Games.

“I really enjoyed my time in America… Nathan [Wiffen] was competing at NCAAs, that was the main reason we went over there… I kind of follow him everywhere,” Wiffen said. “The training environment was really good… I just think that for me, the type of work I was doing wasn’t very good. I’m still happy I went.”

He added that he was excited for the move back as he will be training the same way he was leading up to the Paris Olympics, where he won his first individual gold medal in the 800 free.

“For me, I just know it’s going to work, and that kind of exciting for m,” Wiffen added. “Give me four weeks, and I’ll be back to my personal bests.”

According to a BBC report, Wiffen sees this move back to Dublin as a “permanent one,” and he initially thought the move to California was permanent, but it just did not pan out.

“I’m looking at it as a permanent move. I thought California was a permanent move, but that didn’t work out,” Wiffen said. “This is the plan to stay here until LA [Olympics in 2028]. It’s an improved version of Paris, I get to train here, and it’s all very specialized. Now it’s how much can I progress?”

Wiffen announced in August of 2025 that he would move to Cal after spending five years at Loughborough University, though he had a backup plan if Cal did not work out as He had initially desired.

“I wasn’t doing the right type of work I used to do, so when it came to the decision, I sat down with Andy Reid [National Performance Director at Swim Ireland] and talked to him. We had talked of the backup plan if California didn’t work when he was first appointed, so this was already in the thinking.” Wiffen told the BBC. “In California it felt like you kind of didn’t know what you were doing. You were having to push yourself, there wasn’t much guidance or criticising technique… They didn’t want to mess up the Olympic champion is what I felt. They were trying to do what they wanted to do, not what’s good for me.”