2024 Olympic Profiles
The swimmer David Popovici
Ana-Maria Popescu, 02.09.2024, 13:50
Before the Olympic Games in Paris, David Popovici was the athlete on whom the vast majority of Romanians’ hopes were pinned. And he did not disappoint. He became the new Olympic champion of the 200m freestyle event and won the bronze in the 100m freestyle race. In Paris, he was the first member of Team Romania to win a gold medal, on Monday, July 29th. His success in the 200m race was also the first Olympic title for Romania in men’s swimming. The girls had won Olympic gold medals in 2000, in Sydney, (Diana Mocanu in the 100m and 200m backstroke), and in 2004, in Athens (Camelia Potec in the 200m freestyle).
In the 200m freestyle final in Paris, David was the most likely to win. He had the best performance of the season, and had achieved the best times in the Olympic qualifiers and semi-finals. But the final was unexpectedly balanced. Germany’s Lukas Maertens, the Olympic 400m champion, started very well, but by mid-race he slowed down. The American Luke Hobson and Britons Matthew Richards and Duncan Scott also seemed able to win, but eventually David Popovici triumphed.
Aged only 19, David thus added to his track record the only medal he was missing, the Olympic one. He had won 2 world champion titles, in Budapest in 2022, and 5 European champion titles: on in Kazan, in 2021, in a short-course pool, and then 2 each in Rome, in 2022 and in Belgrade, this year, in Olympic-size pools.
In the 100m freestyle event, David came out 3rd after a breathtaking final, in which China’s Pan Zhanle broke the world record by 0.40 sec. With 2 medals, gold and bronze, Popovici remains the Romanian athlete with the best individual performance at the Paris Olympics.
