Olympic Men's 800m Freestyle Swimming Odds: Irish ace Wiffen the man to catch

Ireland's Daniel Wiffen made history at the World Championships earlier this year and now he's looking to repeat the feat at the Olympics.

Wiffen is 4/5 to win 800m freestyle gold in Paris and become the first Irish male to win an Olympic swimming title, though there will be quality either side of him in the final at La Defense.

Olympic - Men's 800m Freestyle odds

• Daniel Wiffen - 4/5
• Bobby Finke - 5/1
• Elijah Winnington - 13/2
• Ahmed Jaouadi - 7/1
• Gregorio Paltrinieri - 7/1

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(Odds were correct at time of publishing and subject to change)

Daniel Wiffen

Wiffen comes into the final as the 4/5 favourite and, as the current world champion and fastest man in qualifying, is going to take some stopping.

Leeds-born Wiffen shot to prominence last year when he smashed the 800m freestyle short-course world record, heralding speculation that he could become the first Irish male swimmer to win gold at the Olympics.

That speculation gained a lot more substance at February's World Championships in Doha when he won both the 800m and 1500m freestyle events.

The 23-year-old, who represents Northern Ireland in the Commonwealth Games but Ireland at the Olympics, is seeking to emulate Michelle Smith, the only other Irish swimmer to win Olympic gold, at Atlanta in 1996.

And he certainly qualified in style, winning his heat in 7:41:53, over half a second clear of anyone else, to give him the prime spot of lane four for the final.

Bobby Finke

Finke could only finish third in his heat and qualified fifth fastest yet is still seen as Wiffen's likeliest challenger in the final.

And you only need to cast your mind back to Tokyo three years ago to understand why the American is afforded such respect.

He made the finals of both the 800m and 1500m freestyle in Japan yet was behind in each of them going into the final 50 metres.

That was when Finke turned on the afterburners, going on to win gold in both, and as the American record holder as well as the defending champion, don't expect the 24-year-old to give up his title without a fight.

Elijah Winnington

Australian Winnington followed Wiffen home in his heat, qualifying for the final with the fourth fastest time.

All of Winnington's best work has been done over the shorter distances - he is a former Australian and world 400m freestyle champion, reaching the final in that discipline in Tokyo in 2021 though finishing out of the medals.

He announced himself as a threat over 800m at this year's World Championships where he took silver behind Wiffen, though two seconds adrift.

Ahmed Jaouadi

The rising star of distance freestyle could well be Ahmed Jaouadi, though the 19-year-old Tunisian will be hoping his time is now rather than in the future.

The teenager had given a hint of his potential when setting a personal best of 7:45:31 in France last summer, though that time would not have been good enough to make the Olympic final.

However, earlier this week, the Tunisian superstar slashed over three seconds off his PB to win his heat and qualify second fastest behind Wiffen.

Gregorio Paltrinieri

The bronze medalist at this year's 800m freestyle at the World Championships was Paltrinieri, who also qualified third fastest for this final.

The Italian is the father figure of the long distance swimmers at 29 and stacked with pedigree as a three-time European champion at 800m freestyle who was also crowned world champion in 2019.