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“I LOVE OLYMPIC gold medalists,” he tells us after securing a chance to bag another of his own.
Daniel Wiffen has asked for an autograph off US sprinter Noah Lyles under the presumption he will win the 100m event at Stade de France tomorrow night.
“Well, I don’t know when he’s up, but he’ll probably win.”
The swimmer won’t get to see the much-hyped event as he’ll be busy not only trying to win the 1,500m freestyle at the same time but also endeavouring to break the world record.
“I’ll give you a little insight,” he says, charmingly, after finishing as the fastest qualifier in this morning’s 1,500m heats. “I mean, I’m going to try to have a crack at this world record. If it happens, it happens, if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. But I think personally it’s going to take that to win gold.”
The time of 14:31.02 he has to chase down was set by Chinese swimmer Sun Yang at London 2012. That’s about three seconds faster than his current personal best and Irish national record.
Told he was inside that pace at times during today’s heat, he responded: “Well, if you’re saying I was inside the pace and I didn’t feel like I was, maybe it is possible. I guess we’ll see tomorrow night.”
His race today saw him finish in 14:40.34, his strokes smooth, pace steady and tactics controlled.
A gold and his name written into history books as Ireland’s first male Olympic medalist in the pool, Wiffen admits the 800m freestyle win has energised and fatigued him simultaneously.
“I’m not going to lie, I feel like I was carrying a bit of fatigue still. I mean, I haven’t really slept properly since the 800m. I mean, I’m still sleeping like eight hours, it’s just not a perfect sleep,” he explained.
Sleep is on his mind not just because of the tiredness but also his awareness of how Sun Yang prepared for the games 12 years’ ago with “a lot of it”.
In the positive column for the 800m (now at the back of his mind), it has allowed him to be “so happy” as he readies himself to go again.
“I’m looking at it as I haven’t won anything and I’m going in with the same attitude I went in with to the 800 final and yeah, that’s exactly what’s gonna happen.”
His gold medal status has also meant more attention in the athletes’ village, with people asking for photos and advice, something he’s starting to enjoy.
Picking up on the reporters’ need for fresh copy after a week of the games, Wiffen smiles and says, “I actually think I’m probably like one of the most famous Olympic champions.”
Riffing on being asked about his glasses by an American journalist earlier in the week, he adds: “Maybe I’ve got a distinct look about me, because I think every sport comes up to me in the dining hall and asks for photos. I feel like Simone Biles.”
Returning to the swimming momentarily, he says there has also been an impact in the pool.
“Yeah, it does feel different [being a medalist], but as I said, I’m just trying not to think about it because I really want this 1,500m gold and to came home with the medal, that was my aspiration.”
Always up-front about his preferred event, he says he loves the longer distance and that’s the podium the Magheralin native has dreamed of.
“But coming into the 1,500m now as the 800m champion, it’s going to be a bit of a difference.
“You have to find different ways to motivate yourself and different ways to go fast and that’s exactly what I’m going to do tomorrow night.”
The world record in his sights, and rivals – America’s Bobby Finke and Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri – on his mind, he doesn’t seem to be short on incentives to stay focused.
Predicting the top three, he believes the race podium will mirror that of the 800m which featured the three men.
“It’s probably the same people and yeah, I’m sure it’s gonna be a great race and we’ll see what happens.”
He also says his coach – who has, as planned, returned to his family – has left him alone ‘because I’m doing everything right, so there’s nothing really to talk about’.
More endearing than his bombastic words look on paper, the 23-year-old wants to bring his love for the distance into the Seine next week too for the men’s 10k swim.
“I mean it’s everything to me to get two golds. I came just looking for one and now I’m in a position to get two or maybe three with the Seine race the next week.”
The possibility of a second and then a third gold would rip up the annals of sporting history in Ireland, surpassing Paul O’Donovan’s feats this week and Pat O’Callaghan’s in the hammer throw back in 1932.
Indeed, Wiffen’s performances in the 1,500m could be direct from the playbook of Paul O’Donovan, just a different type of water and a more human oar. Ruthless, efficient and relentless.
Written by Sinead O’Carroll and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won’t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women’s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here.
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I’m an Irish programmer, living abroad, and would like to work remotely for an Irish company. (It’s always a good excuse for visiting home every now and then.) Even with the skills shortage, it seems that no employer is interested.
I’m also in a similar position (living/working in the UK), I like to check in every now and then with job opportunities in Ireland and it’s always 3-5 years industry experience. It seems to be case (to me at least) that you have to move abroad to get your experience before you can come back and apply for these jobs.
I think everyone can agree (having myself being in a similar position) that there is NO SKILLS SHORTAGE.
It is a shortage of desired experience.
Every company requires 3-5 years it seems. None are interested in investing in staff to train/mentor them.
My advice would be similar to other posters for those with no experience: learn how to build a phone app, or try to improve a piece of software from the likes of Sourceforge.net Then put that at the top of your CV.
Exactly – nobody cares if you got 86% in second year in Software Systems – they just want to know what you can do.
I don’t blame companies for wanting experience though – why take on a 22 year old when you can take on a 32 year old? Not like in 30 years time you’ll regret that the older guy is retiring sooner than the younger guy, in the software industry :-P
In my own case I have six years of industry experience with Java, but no one is taking the bait.
Spot on. If you don’t have a github.com account with some interesting projects or contributions, don’t bother.
Software engineering is one of the few jobs that you can MAKE your own experience. As someone who hires developers, I’d sooner hire someone with an interesting github portfolio than someone with more qualifications than you can shake a stick at.
It’s pretty easy to spot people interested in building cool things.
You’re a dying breed Dave. Outside of google very few companies are looking for software developers who are in any way creative. However, they are increasingly looking for staff who are multidisciplinary. Agile is pushing things that way… especially devops.
Software companies want experienced engineers so there is the catch how can you have a constant flow of graduates when they can’t get jobs becuase companies want experienced people.
The other flip side the money is crap starting off.
Money isn’t crap starting off – it’s in line with most other jobs of similar expertise. Companies wanting experienced people is a nuisance though, but I’m not sure how to resolve that.
Software is one of those fields though where you can gain expertise without experience. If your CV has a link to your website, your GitHub profile or some mobile app you’ve worked on they shouldn’t care how long you’ve been working at it.
If you’re passionate about software and have the skills to match, you have the ability to convey this to an employer :-)
Sofware developers are the highest paid graduates of any field. They are even paid more than intern doctors and graduate engineers. Of course those fields catch up fairly quickly.
Is there a list of these vacancies/job specifications?
There is no skills shortage. There is however a bias towards 25-35 year olds, with 5 years experience in a very specific and narrow skill set.
The employers (HR departments) have absolutely no comprehension that a programmer is a programmer, that’s the “skill”, the programming language is usually pretty irrelevant.
If you are over 45 years old, then the employers pretty much ignore you and your wealth of experience.
Irish companies have become very Americanised in the practice of promoting (very) young people to managerial positions, who are then biased towards hiring people their own age.
So what skills are we short of? If it’s technical that’s something to work towards for our universities and students, if it’s language of course it’s going to be easier for people of other nationalities.
So half are picked by Irish residents !
Very poor CV screening, interviewing and technical tests result in a lot of false negatives. I was recently made redundant, and have just been through the process. I picked up a job pretty quickly, but I am genuinely surprised by the lack of opportunities for some of the more junior guys, given that I would be happy to work with all of them again and they have access to great references from everyone at the company.
I constantly see companies that are doing web-development asking about program complexity and solving scalability problems that they more than likely don’t have. If they do have these problems, they are self inflicted by people reinventing the wheel rather than using something off the shelf. Another thing I noticed is the asking of questions assuming knowledge of specific tools. Web summit insisted on degrees from Universities only, with a clear bias towards Trinity college.
I personally would prefer to hire someone with less experience of these kind of things, and the simple ability to do simple things correctly and take direction. I don’t think I would have a problem hiring in the current environment.
Given that we are in the middle of a tech bubble, we should not spend too much time trying to correct these problems at the expense of the exchequer and let the companies who have the problem deal with these self inflicted problems themselves.
I’m an Irish IT graduate with over 10 yrs experience. I’ve taken time out to raise my child. I’ve been trying to get back to work for the last couple of years & companies are unwilling to even respond to my CV. I understand the concepts, am easily retrained & willing to work. It’s not a shortage of skills, I think it’s that companies want an exact set of skills & aren’t willing to re-train people. I know I’m not the only one in this position.
You’re right. as an employer, it’s not efficient to hire someone that will take weeks or months to retrain. The onus is on you to skill up. Not your employer. Ad I’ve stated before, in IT, it’s very VERY easy to upskill and create your own experience in the form of personal projects.
I’m still shocked at those who don’t understand this. Nobody owes you a job and being out of work for 10 years means you’re practically starting from scratch anyway. But that doesn’t matter, it’s very easy to start and build something yourself to modernise your skill set.
I’d sooner hire a 17 year old who just finished their leaving with a decent github profile then someone with 3 masters and no effort put into keeping themselves relevant.
Too few jobseekers actualky put themselves in the shoes of a potential employer.
have your say