Unless you’ve been living under a rock you know that 17-year-old David Popovici of Romania made history by becoming the fastest man ever to swim the 100m freestyle event.
On day 3 of the 2022 European Championships, Popovici rocked a final time of 46.86 to not only take the gold but also surpass the supersuited 2009 World Record of 46.91 Brazilian Cesar Cielo established in 2009.
The self-proclaimed ‘Skinny Legend’ already topped the podiums in this event at the 2022 World Championships and 2022 European Junior Championships before taking gold here in Rome.
Additionally, the generational talent has claimed the top seed in the 200m free at these 2022 European Championships with the 400m free yet to come on his agenda.
With groundbreaking performances like these in Rome, the world wants to see what else Popovici has to offer and the teen is planning on delivering at this year’s FINA Short Course World Championships.
Today, David’s father Mihai Popovici confirmed to SwimSwam that his generational talent of a son is indeed targeting this year’s SC Championships slated for Australia in December.
That means we’ll most likely see a dual between Popovici and the reigning short course 100 freestyle world record holder Kyle Chalmers of Australia.
The current Romanian national record in the SCM 100 freestyle rests at the 46.64 Robert Glinta established at the 2021 European Championships. As for Popovici, his fastest SCM 100 free stands at the 46.77 logged on last year’s FINA World Cup circuit.
As such, the teen needs only to shave .13 off of his PB to score a new Romanian national record.
Additionally, with Chalmers’ 44.84 short course World Record set last year Popovici needs to drop just over 1 second to claim his 2nd senior World Record.
Suddenly World Short Course becomes interesting.
I’m glad that Popovici doesn’t shy away from international meets!
#SkinnyLegend
#ChloerineDaddy
Hoping to see better turnout than last year’s SCW. It would be pretty hard for Australia not to do much better lol.
Although I wonder who will actually go and who will take it seriously. Titmus has already said she’s out. Has anyone else made clear statements on this?
McKeon will be an interesting one because she didn’t do worlds, but she did commies and is doing DITP. However, DITP starts in four days and her and Cody are still in Italy and they’re both on the team… Not sure how fast they’re going to be.
I think I remember both Larkin and Pallister saying they wanted to go to scw
I get that we’re hyped up on Popovici and he’s really great, but that’s in long course, in short course I’m thinking no way he beats chalmers or dressel in 100 free
He needs to drop 1 second to go from 46.77 to 44.84? 🤔 I’m so confused, are we talking about the 200 LCM now?
Math is HARD!
NO MATH IS CONFUSING
He is so fast it’s only 1 second in Popovici time
More likely to break the Biedermann 200 free tbh
So far DP was not that impressive at short course while Sates and Hwang have been quite strong at SC. So it’ll be interesting to see those youngsters’ battle this time in Australia.
I mean the Popovici vs Chalmers at short course worlds is assuming that something doesn’t happen for Kyle to need yet another surgery
Bravo. You’re supposed to do these meets and ring the bell while on ascent. That’s when any number is possible. It was a darn shame Ledecky avoided short course during those years. It doesn’t matter if you supposedly fit the distance. Details are irrelevant. Prodigies make it happen.
Agreed.
I remember that legends like Hackett, Thorpe, Hosszu, Sjostrom didn’t shy away from short course meets!
Agreed, I don’t really get why so many swimmers find excuses not to attend big meets (SC/LC worlds or euros). Literally half of them complain that swimming is a draining sport where you only get peak performance once every 1-2 years … Might be more beneficial to go test yourself against the best multiple times a year.
ISL managed to get create such an environment where we still go to see some world records without the swimmers gruellingly training for it, they just had less pressure to perform and thus could have more fun and put on fast times.
yeah I always found it weird how ledecky could go really fast in season, sometimes in WR time, yet skip sc worlds and isl (barring that one isl match she did in 2019, and that 400 time is #3 all time)
Two things: (1) SC worlds are in the middle of the US school year, when NCAA and high school age swimmers are focused on those seasons, classes, and exams. As a result, people here historically just don’t pay much attention to them or care about them. A few pros go, but to many of the big names, they’re not worth the hassle. They can stay here and swim the US Open LC. (2) ISL is funded by a Russian oligarch and therefore inherently shady. There have been many issues with people not being paid. If you’re making a good living with your endorsements at home, why bother with it?
Katie Ledecky does not need to swim short course meters. Besides, the Toyota U.S. Open coincides during the same frame as the Short Course World Championships.
So the US open is more important than Short course worlds…… but people happily criticised the Aussies who happened to prioritise Comm games this year?
Katie Ledecky continues to post Top 25 All-Time Performances.
As for the legacy of Katie Ledecky, Katie Ledecky needs one individual gold medal to tie the record for the most individual gold medals at the FINA World Aquatics Championships and two individual gold medals to break the record.