Daniel Wiffen carries Ireland's hope of rare success in Olympic pool

Irish swimming has rarely been linked with Olympic success but distance specialist Daniel Wiffen has genuine hope of seeing the Tricolour flag hoisted above the Paris pool after his events.

The 22-year-old became Ireland's first swimmer to claim a World Championships medal when he took the men's 800 metres freestyle gold in Doha in February and followed that up with the 1500m title at the same meet.

He will now hope to become the second Irish swimmer to claim gold in the Olympic pool nearly 30 years after Michelle Smith took three individual titles at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

Though thriving in events that require lung-busting endurance and a high pain threshold, Wiffen is a scholarly-looking iron-man, wearing big, round-framed glasses outside the pool and showing a penchant for goofy victory celebrations in it.

After claiming the 800m title in Doha, Wiffen made a phone gesture with his hand and slammed it down in the water.

He trains with his twin brother Nathan, also an elite swimmer, and both appeared as child extras in an episode of the hit series Game of Thrones.

The twins regularly document their training and events on a YouTube channel, mixing in pop music and candid reviews of swims that have not gone to plan.

Only Daniel will swim for Ireland at Paris, but Nathan will be close at hand, likely collecting footage for a hit-generating vlog.

Wiffen heads to France with the fastest times this year in the 800m (7:40.94) and 1,500m (14:34.07).

Only a few seconds off Chinese swimmer Sun Yang's long-standing 1,500m world record (14:31.02), he has ambitions of improving on the mark.

He already owns the 800m short course world record which he took off Australian great Grant Hackett at European championships last December.

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