'Back-to-back world titles would top Olympic gold'

Daniel Wiffen won two golds at the World Championships and became Olympic champion in a successful 2024

Olympic champion Daniel Wiffen believes that winning back-to-back World Championship titles would mean more to him than his gold medal from Paris.

In a stunning 2024, Team Ireland swimmer Wiffen claimed a 1500m and 800m freestyle double at the World Championships and won a historic gold medal in the 800m at the Paris Olympics.

The 23-year-old also won a bronze medal in the 1500m at the Games.

"Everyone says the hardest thing to do is to win a World Championships after an Olympics, and I'm up for the challenge," Wiffen told BBC Sport NI in anticipation of this year's World Championships in Singapore.

"I think winning back-to-back World Championships is going to be better than winning the Olympics for me."

By winning his gold medal in Paris, Wiffen became the first athlete from Northern Ireland to claim Olympic gold in 36 years.

He will look to replicate that form when he heads to the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, which take place from 11 July to 3 August.

After a golden 2024, Wiffen says he wants to add to his winning legacy and that has given him added motivation heading to the Worlds.

"For me, the Olympics is what everyone watches. If you can win consecutively over the next number of years then it becomes bigger than just winning an Olympics.," he added.

"It becomes about being how many times can you win before you lose? Then you get to the point where you keep striving for that excellence.

"You're trying to go bigger and bigger and you are bringing the curiosity of 'what happens if I do keep winning?' or 'what happens if I lose?'.

"You then use that mindset of 'if I lose here then it's not going to go very well', and that motivates you even further to keep winning. That's what I am looking forward to."

Irish return on cards after Worlds

After the Worlds, Wiffen will move his training base back to Ireland after a number of years studying and swimming at Loughborough University.

He will split his time between Dublin and America, where his twin Nathan will move to at the University of California later in the year, as he builds towards the next Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.

The move will also mean the end of his successful partnership with coach Andi Manley, and Wiffen says he is undecided on who he will work with in the next stage of his career.

But for now his focus is on the World Championships, where he will add the 400 metre freestyle to the longer-distance 800m and 1500m.

Wiffen finished seventh in the 400m final in Doha before winning his two titles, admitting that "sparked something in me".

"I don't want to come in seventh place, I want to win. I'm adding it back in, I'm going to try and better seventh place as my goal.

"We'll see how it goes. I'm hoping for a medal in it. It will be tough having now swam it for a year but I'm looking forward to it and the challenge."

He added that the 400m would be treated as a "warm-up" for the longer events, but he is still aiming for a podium finish.

"This is going to sound weird because I try and treat the 400m as a warm-up. Even though I want a medal in it, we're talking about trying to get that swim out of the way before the 800m.

"Sometimes you need that start-up race to have a really good race in your second one. For the 400m, it's a warm-up race but I will give it the credit and I am trying to win a medal."