Three weeks before heading to Paris for the Olympics, the Armagh swimmer is in no way distracted by the latest Chinese doping controversy
When Daniel Wiffen pops up on Zoom from his kitchen at Loughborough the first striking impression is the hefty crop of facial hair, and the fair mop up top too.
“It was the best I’ve ever trained,” he says without pause. “After coming back from altitude training in April, I got a little bit ill out there. Then as soon as I got back, I felt amazing in training. Wiffen’s World Championship 1,500m winning time in Doha of 14:34.07 would have won him Olympic gold in Tokyo and Rio, only ever bettered on the Olympic stage by Sun Yang from China, who won in London 2012 with his still world record of 14:31.02, before in 2018, he refused an anti-doping test and was banned for eight years .
“All I say is they don’t really swim my events,” Wiffen says. “But I’m there to swim for myself, and obviously my country, and just think about myself.” “Yeah I saw his times, but saw I’m still ranked world number one, in both events. That’s obviously a good sign. But it’s hard to gauge, with the US and Australian trials so close to the Olympics, and how rested are they. I just can’t wait to race them, that’s what I’m really looking forward to.”
“I’m not going to lie, I’m not going to Paris thinking second, or third. I’m going in thinking I’m going to win. But honestly, in training, my coach and I, we don’t mention the Olympics at all. If I’m clutching reps, we just say ‘that’s fast’, he’s not telling me ‘oh, that’s an Olympic gold medal time’.
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