Irish swimming sensation Daniel Wiffen believes he is on a twin track to Olympic glory in Paris.
Wiffen, 21, swam PBs in Tokyo but has gone to a different level since last year - he broke the European 800m freestyle record in December.
In April, he posted the fourth-ever fastest time in the world at 1500m - 14:31.91 - only for a German rival, Florian Wellbrock, to beat it by 100th of a second a week later.
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Regardless, the County Down native is now seen as a real medal prospect for the Games in July of next year. Wiffen claims those prospects will be further enhanced if his twin brother Nathan makes it there too.
"100%," he said. "Not only having your brother there is great but basically someone you've been alive with your whole life is amazing.
"I know that when Nathan is there I'm fast and vice versa. So if Nathan is able to go to the Olympics with me I know I'm going to be able to perform on the day and produce what I'm capable of.
"I wouldn't say we've got telepathy but we can definitely talk to each other without saying it and definitely boost each other.
"When I see him race or he sees me race and we're on the sidelines I'm saying in my head, trying to tell him to go faster, and you can kind of feel it. I guess we're better together and hopefully it's going to work out."
Sibling rivalry also applies and Wiffen says that competing against his slightly younger brother drives him on.
Nathan has been promoted to the same training group as Daniel at Loughborough University and the latter believes that is an important stepping stone for Nathan's Olympic qualification.
"I've probably been competitive since I came out of the womb, against my brother," he smiled. "I was first out of the womb, luckily! We're always at each other.
"He's been training with me for three weeks now, he just got moved up to the same squad as me. We're already fighting in training, saying who's better, trying to get each other to get faster.
"And to be honest I can say this now - I'm pretty confident in his ability, from training with him and seeing him train, that he's probably going to make the Paris Olympics and you can see both of us then.
"I’ve always had a lot of confidence, maybe when I was younger I was a little cocky.
"But I’ve pushed that aside - I don’t want to be this arrogant person, I want people to come up and talk to me anytime, that kind of person
"The confidence comes from being in a competitive family, I guess. I’ve an older brother, a sister, a twin, we’re all fighting to be the favourite child of all five.
"Maybe I’m winning at the moment, with my swimming results. But I think that’s where it stems from, the family background, trying to be the best. "
Wiffen admits that his record-breaking times have shocked his rivals.
The Worlds and Paris 2024 medal hopeful has previously claimed that he is one of the most tested athletes in the Irish system.
"From what I've heard, nobody's ever done a progression like mine," he said. "If you can go under 15 minutes you're a good swimmer, a great swimmer, in the top 100 ever.
"I went under 15 minutes in June last year. And then the next month, at the Commonwealth Games, I went 14:51 so that was another just under eight-second drop.
"Six months later, I dropped another 17 seconds and, really, you never see people going under that 15-minute barrier drop anywhere over five seconds. It's kind of unheard of - so for the 17-second drop I kind of shocked a lot of people.
"I think the others are probably looking at me, I'm 21-years-old, they're all 25-years-old, I'm the young guy on the stage dropping all these PBs, so they're probably wondering, 'Gee, how fast am I going to have to go to beat him?'.
"My answer to that would be, 'You'll need to go a world record to beat me'."
Wiffen puts his dramatic improvements down to starting altitude training and technique changes.
"We're going up to 2,300m above sea level for three weeks, doing a lot of volume and it increases your red blood count so that when you come back down to sea level you are fitter," he explained.
He has trained at altitude four times so far and will do so three times next year
"So hopefully I can continue that upward trajectory and keep the PBs going," he said.
"Every athlete who makes the final in the World Championship is going to altitude. They've probably been doing it a lot more than I have - they've probably been over 20 times, so maybe I can say I'm just quicker than them.
"The more times I go, how quick can I be?
"The first time I went I got a big boost - but actually the last time I got a bigger boost than the first time. Maybe when I get to 20 altitude camps it won't be as beneficial but it's still going to help.
"And also my technique. I’ve put together a video every year of how my stroke has changed. The changes I’ve made mean I'm a completely different swimmer from Tokyo."
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