Although we’re still awaiting the official Irish roster announcement for next month’s Short Course World Championships, we know one Olympic medalist who will be opting out of the competition in Budapest.
23-year-old Daniel Wiffen confirmed to SwimSwam and via social media that he will be bypassing on SC Worlds with the recently completed British Universities & Colleges (BUCS) Short Course Championships representing his final competition of 2024.
“I’m not competing because I’ve only just got back after my extended break post-Olympics,” Wiffen told us.
Wiffen earned 800m free gold and 1500m free bronze at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France. He also raced in his first-ever, and supposedly last-ever, open water race.
The identical twin to Cal commit Nathan Wiffen followed his successful campaign with a leisure trip to Bali where he also took up surfing.
“Surfing kind of helped because we were surfing six hours a day. You’re still swimming when you’re surfing, you’re paddling. So I didn’t really stop to be honest, but it was just a different type of sport,” he told RTE.
Wiffen expects his next meet to be the BUCS Long Course Championships in February.
BUCS has a short course and long course season. NCAA, are you aware of that?
I would have gone with “wiffing on” instead of “opting out” on the headline.