'I couldn’t be prouder': Lady Mary Peters hails Daniel Wiffen after he strikes Olympic gold in Paris
Daniel Wiffen became the first Northern Ireland athlete since Mary Peters to win an individual gold at a summer Olympics last night, following a thrilling 800m freestyle swim in Paris.
Representing Team Ireland, the 23-year-old from Magheralin near Moira, also set a new Olympic record time of 7:38.19 as he held off the USA’s Bobby Finke in a nail-biting finish.
Then just over an hour later Belfast swimmer Jack McMillan also struck gold as Team GB retained the men’s 4x200m freestyle title, although he did not swim on the night.
Wiffen and McMillan’s golds mean five NI athletes have now won summer Olympics gold, with the two others going to Stephen Martin and Jimmy Kirkwood of the GB men’s hockey team from 1988.
Lady Mary Peters, who defied the odds to win pentathlon gold at the 1972 games in Munich, couldn’t be happier for Daniel – who has been supported by the Mary Peters Trust.
“Daniel deserves his gold medal, he swam brilliantly,” she said.
“It was so exciting to watch the race. As one of our Mary Peters Trust athletes, I’ve followed Daniel’s progress over several years and it’s simply fantastic to see all the hard graft and dedication pay off with a medal.
“Huge congratulations to Daniel. His family and coaches will be so proud.”
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Lady Mary, whose trust is supporting a total of 27 athletes at the games, added: “I couldn’t be prouder of Daniel, as I am of all our local athletes competing for Team Ireland and Team GB.
“Each and every one of them has worked their socks off to be part of such an amazing and memorable sporting spectacular.”
Speaking poolside afterwards, a jubilant Wiffen said: “I don’t think a lot of people actually believed me that I was going to do it tonight but yeah it was incredible. I’ve done it – that’s all I want to say!”
Wiffen’s success was particularly historic for Team Ireland as it was their first-ever men’s gold medal in the pool.