After surgery and recovery, Wiffen, who won gold in the men’s 800m freestyle in Paris 2024, made the decision to move his training base from Loughborough University to Berkeley, California, alongside his brother Nathan.
Ahead of next week’s Irish Open Swimming Championships, which take place in Bangor from April 8-12, Wiffen says he will consider moving his training base back to Dublin if he doesn’t produce the times he expects.
“I’m going to be very honest with everybody: if I don’t swim fast next week, I’m not staying in California,” he said. The Armagh native’s goals are to swim 400m around 4:33, the 800m below 7:42 and the 1,500m under 14:40. Hitting those times will dictate his next steps on the road to LA 2028.
“I know I’m going to be fast, but who knows how fast. I’m thinking of coming back to Dublin if things don’t go well. If I swim the lights out in Bangor, then my decision is made, but I’m expecting to be the fastest ever so I don’t have to make that decision.
“One of the main reasons I left Loughborough was because I wasn’t convinced that I could stay there and still go fast, and I wasn’t convinced that the training, with what they were doing and the way the programme was moving, that I could perform to the best of my ability, so that’s why I went to California.”
Wiffen says his hangover from surgery was short-lived and that he has no issues or doubts: “When I came off my surgery, it took me two months to win a European Championship, so obviously it’s not that hard. I was posting some fast times in America, and I also had some slow races. In terms of the doubt after surgery, it went away after the Europeans.”
Daniel Wiffen celebrates after winning the men’s 1500m freestyle final during the European Short Course swimming championships at Lublin in Poland. Photo: Nikola Krstic/Sportsfile
After the success of Ellen Walshe and John Shortt at the European Short-Course Championships in Poland in December, Irish swimming is on a high, and Wiffen hopes that can translate into the long-course events, ahead of this year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
“We’re definitely coming into the fastest we’ve ever been. I don’t know if we’ve ever had that many people on the podium at European short course. I’m not really a short-course person, even though I broke the world record in December, but short course is not swimming to me.
“It’s all about the Olympics and World Championships, long course, so we’ll see how we do. I think it will be the biggest test for Irish swimming to see if we can convert the success into more long-course medals. If we come back from the European Championships in 2027 with the same medal haul as Poland, I’ll be the happiest person in the world.
“When we have a team that all succeed together, it makes life so much easier. It becomes like this infectious energy as soon as the first person does it. Normally, it’s me on the first day as well, racing 400m, so I like to kick it off. That’s what we’re going to bring into the long-course season, driving each other on.”
Daniel Wiffen sees Irish swimming on the rise internationally
The 24-year-old says there is a big difference between training in the UK and California, both in and out of the pool. “Loughborough was all about the grind, very similar weather to Ireland,” he explains. “I love swimming in the rain, because when I’m in the rain and the weather’s dull, you just want to get in the pool, but when I’m in the sun, the motivation becomes a lot harder.
“For me, when I’m swimming in California, I’d say the motivation is because I’m there with a very fast training group, and everybody’s pushing each other, whereas in Loughborough, I felt like it was more self-motivation, where I was more getting in there because I wanted to win. I wanted to do all these things where I feel like now the group is pushing each other, but I want a bit of the self-motivation back.”
“We’ll have to see how the next week goes, but I’ll happily answer questions about my future after I swim next week.”