Paris 2024: Daniel Wiffen ice cold as Olympic zenith carried on commentary wave

If Monday at Versailles evoked images of mirages, Tuesday in Paris was an even greater assault on the senses, with temperatures in the city peaking at 35 degrees Celsius. It felt hotter than that though.

So having sizzled in the early afternoon heat of the Yves du Manoir stadium's secondary field for the Irish men’s hockey team’s third pool match against India, an immediate trip up to La Defense Arena sounded like a welcome idea.

Indeed, the Olympic swimming pool did briefly seem like a tempting place to jump into to cool off whilst recording a piece-to-camera poolside.

But once that temptation was suppressed with greater difficulty than expected, off one went to sit down next to RTÉ Sport’s man on the mic John Kenny high up in the commentary booth.

It was still on the warm side as the evening’s swim programme progressed.

But then in stepped the coldest-blooded person in the entire arena. The roll call for the men’s 800m freestyle final was underway and the swimmer in lane four was under no illusion about what he had in store for everyone.

Cool as you like!#RTESport #Paris2024