Olympic champion Daniel Wiffen and his twin brother/training partner, Nathan Wiffen, analyzed Daniel’s 800 victory on their YouTube channel.
Daniel walked through his thought process before and during what he called “the most painful 800 I’ve ever done.”
“When you dive into an Olympic final, you honestly don’t feel good at all,” Daniel said. ‘It’s really just adrenaline that you’re trying to run off of.”
The Irish national teamer was happy with his back-half pacing and his turns throughout the race. He also correctly anticipated that Bobby Finke and Gregorio Paltrinieri, the respective silver and bronze medalists, would be his toughest competition.
On the last 100, Nathan remarked that it was a “scrappy race” as Finke inched closer to Daniel. Aware of Finke’s notorious last 50 speed, Daniel glanced at Finke on the last turn before upping the stroke rate and touching the wall first.
Daniel’s time of 7:38.19 marked a personal best, European Record, and Olympic Record. Ukrainian Mykhailo Romanchuk previously held the Olympic Record of 7:41.28 from the heats of the Tokyo 2020 Games, the event’s Olympic debut on the men’s side. Finke and Paltrinieri were also under the old Olympic record, clocking 7:38.75 and 7:39.38 respectively.
Daniel felt proud to bring home the gold and told Nathan he’d be winning the medals at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. This summer, Nathan lowered his 1500 free personal best by nearly 15 seconds and was a two-time finalist at the 2024 European Championships.
The 23-year-old Wiffen twins have been documenting their life as elite swimmers together on YouTube since 2020, similar to Caeleb Dressel. The two attend Loughborough University in England and host swim clinics together.
Next week, the pair will analyze Daniel’s bronze medal-winning 1500 swim in Paris.
