Irish Olympic gold medalist Daniel Wiffen officially announced via social media today that he will be leaving Loughborough University, where he has spent the last five years training, and he will be joining the pro group at Cal.
The day has finally come – I have decided that I am moving away from Loughborough university swim programme. A place I called home for 5 years. A place where I grew from a swimmer that would never make it, to an Olympic champion.
When I joined Loughborough I went in with… pic.twitter.com/Fein3pNzwa
— Daniel Wiffen (@WiffenDaniel) August 7, 2025
Wiffen won two medals at the Paris Olympics last summer, taking the gold in the men’s 800 freestyle in a new European Record time of 7:38.19. He also won the bronze in the men’s 1500 freestyle in 14:39.63, a little over five seconds off the 14:34.07 he swam at the 2024 World Championships to win gold and set the Irish National Record.
He mentioned his significant improvement while training with Andi Manley at Loughborough over the last five years, saying “I went in with personal bests of 8:13 and 15:39 and now I’m leaving with personal bests of 7:38 and 14:34.”
At the 2019 European Junior Swimming Championships, Wiffen swam 8:13.72 in the men’s 800 freestyle to finish 13th overall. Just two months later at the 2019 World Junior Swimming Championships he finished 18th in the 1500, setting a personal best 15:39.74.
He quickly improved from there, qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics where he was 14th in the 800 (7:55.02) and 20th in the 1500 (15:07.69).
Wiffen recently swam at the 2025 World Championships in Singapore, but he had appendicitis about five weeks before the meet started, and he ended up finishing 16th in the 400 (3:47.57), 8th in the 800 (7:58.56), and he scratched the 1500 freestyle.
We reported in June that Wiffen would be leaving Loughborough, but he said at the time that his main training base would be in Ireland. He confirmed to SwimSwam today that he will be doing his rehab from his surgery at the National Centre with Steve Beckerleg, and then he is hoping to move to Cal at the end of September, where he will be training with Dave Durden and the pro group that includes Lucas Henveaux and an NCAA team that includes his brother Nathan Wiffen. Once there, he plans to stay in Berkley until the European Short Course Championships at the end of December.
He shared that the primary reason for this change was “because [he] had no training partners in Loughborough around [his] age anymore so it was becoming hard to push [himself] to the same level…”
Wiffen touched on this in June when he told Irish media that he and Manley both decided leaving would be beneficial for him, saying, “Being in a university program, you get 18-year-olds, 17-year-olds coming in every year who are a lot lower level than what I am at this point in my career and you want to strive to be better than the people.”
He will be spending the majority of his time at Cal, but when he is not there, he will be back in Ireland and doing the majority of his training with Beckerleg and a few sprint freestylers.
I love it personally. Bringing in people from other countries makes our swimmers faster as well.
Everyone listing all the negatives to this for distance swimming but who knows? Maybe he will become a 200 backstroker or more mid distance free I think most people here are overreacting.
Makes no sense specifically for him to go specifically there but what do I know.
Backstroker Daniel Wiffen is incoming
Prior to the last couple of years his twin brother, Nathan, did focus on back.
Spending 4-5 years at a University in England (with regards to both Nathan and Daniel), what impact does that have a NCAA eligibility?
I think most reasonable people would think they’d have none – given their age and time spent at a previous university.
But Cal do have priors! 😅
In before xenophobes are crying that foreigners should not train in USA
Don’t twist it into some lazy xenophobia argument.
According to his youtube channel, he didn’t have surgery before worlds
Uncomplicated appendicitis can often be treated with antibiotics.
This X post said he would be recovering from appendicitis surgery.
I think that he postponed his surgery until worlds was done and only took antibiotics between his injury and worlds or at least that’s what he made it sound like
Ah yes, Cal known for their distance program
“This is inexplicable! How the heck did Clark Smith’s record survive both Jaouadi and Wiffen?!?!?!” – All of us in 4 years
After that will come the article titled “the most underrated SCY record Clark Smiths 2015 1000 free”
Hafnaoi?