Olympic Gold Medalist Daniel Wiffen Appeared in Game of Thrones’ Red Wedding

Before Irish swimmer Daniel Wiffen took home a gold and a bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, he was part of an iconic television moment.

Wiffen, 23, and his twin brother, Nathan, were extras in the infamous “Red Wedding” scene from HBO’s Game of Thrones. Billed simply as “Red Wedding Twin” on his IMDb page, Wiffen opened up to Olympics.com about the experience in 2022.

“My parents wouldn’t really let me watch it, but I guess my dad watched it all the time, and then my sister [Elizabeth] got a really good role in Game of Thrones — she was one of the Frey daughters [Neyela Frey, granddaughter of Lord Walder Frey],” Wiffen, who was 11 when the shocking episode aired in 2013, recalled. “So, she came in and did her bit and then we came in for the Red Wedding, in the background — which was pretty cool.”

The season 3 episode, which is titled “The Rains of Castamere,” is one of the most talked-about in the show’s history. The “Red Wedding” scene depicts the murder of Robb Stark (Richard Madden), Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairley), pregnant Talisa Stark (Oona Chaplin) and several others at the hands of Walder Frey’s men.

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In addition to his Game of Thrones appearance, Wiffen acted in a 2015 episode of The Frankenstein Chronicles. He has since focused his efforts on swimming and made his Olympics debut at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo where he competed in the men’s 800m freestyle and the 1500m freestyle.

Wiffen returned for the 2024 Paris Olympics and won a gold medal for the 800m freestyle, setting a new record time in the process. The victory marked Ireland’s first Olympic gold medal in swimming since 1996. Wiffen also won the bronze medal in the 1500m freestyle final.

While Daniel’s twin brother has not yet made it to the Olympics, Nathan is also a swimmer. He wrote via Instagram in July that he’d had his “most successful season ever” after making his first International team.

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Nathan also traveled to Paris to support his twin at this year’s Olympics. During an appearance on Ireland AM earlier this month, Nathan joked that he was “trying to telepathically tell” Daniel during the 800m race, “‘You’ve got to go now!’” Nathan added that he’d “nearly lost [his] voice” from cheering on Daniel.

Despite having each other’s backs, the brothers also enjoy some healthy competition. Daniel told Olympics.com in 2022 that he and Nathan have “a big rivalry” because of their shared love of swimming.

“We train together and he’s doing the same events as me. He used to do backstroke and now he does distance freestyle,” he said at the time.