Irish Olympian Daniel Wiffen Hospitalized, Misses Closing Ceremony

Irish Swimmer Wiffen Wins Medals, Then Hospitalized

The 23-year-old Irish swim­mer Daniel Wif­f­en had a suc­cess­ful Olympic Games in Paris, win­ning two medals — a bronze in the men’s 1500-meter freestyle and a gold in the men’s 800-meter freestyle, where he set an Olympic record. 

How­ev­er, Wif­f­en’s Olympic expe­ri­ence took a turn for the worse when he fell ill and had to be hos­pi­tal­ized, miss­ing the clos­ing ceremony.

Wiffen Disappointed to Miss Closing Ceremony

Wif­f­en expressed his dis­ap­point­ment at miss­ing the clos­ing cer­e­mo­ny, where he was sched­uled to be the flag bear­er for the Irish team. In a post on X (for­mer­ly Twit­ter), he said: “Thanks every­one who reached out, I’m incred­i­bly dis­ap­point­ed to miss out on the oppor­tu­ni­ty to be flag bear­er last night.

Yes­ter­day I rushed to hos­pi­tal as I was very unwell with a bug that I am being treat­ed for, and am feel­ing bet­ter now.”

Swimming in the Seine River May Have Caused Illness

Pri­or to his ill­ness, Wif­f­en had com­pet­ed in the men’s 10-kilo­me­ter marathon swim­ming event, which took place in the Seine River.

The open-water swim­ming event had been a point of con­cern, as the riv­er had been banned from pub­lic swim­ming for over a cen­tu­ry due to high lev­els of bac­te­ria and E. coli. 

Wif­f­en described the expe­ri­ence as “prob­a­bly one of the worst things I’ve ever done” and vowed to nev­er com­pete in open-water events again.

German Athletes Also Fell Ill After Seine River Swim

Wif­f­en was not the only ath­lete to expe­ri­ence health issues after com­pet­ing in the open-water events. 

The Ger­man Olympic com­mit­tee report­ed that two female Ger­man open-water swim­mers were treat­ed as out­pa­tients for nau­sea, vom­it­ing, and diar­rhea, while anoth­er swim­mer with sim­i­lar symp­toms was being treat­ed by the Ger­man team doctors.

It’s unclear if their ill­ness­es were direct­ly linked to the Seine Riv­er swim.

Wiffen Reflects on Accomplishing Olympic Dream

Despite the unfor­tu­nate end to his Olympic jour­ney, Wif­f­en expressed grat­i­tude for the oppor­tu­ni­ty to rep­re­sent Ire­land and achieve his child­hood dream of becom­ing an Olympic champion.

In a post on X, he wrote: “They say every child has a dream, to pur­sue the dream is in every child hand’s to make it a real­i­ty. I had the dream of becom­ing an Olympic Cham­pi­on. I put the work in every­day and I’m so hap­py to say that I have accom­plished my child­hood dream.”