At just 17 years old, Romanian phenom David Popovici is still making history. The swimmer from Bucharest was crowned European king of speed and set the world record for the 100 free, the queen event, untouchable, held by the legendary Brazilian César Cielo since 2009.
Popovici, who on Friday in the semifinal already smashed the European record for the distance by going down 47 seconds, in the final he beat the Hungarian Kristof Milak with a time of 46.91 in a dream final post. In the 50 meters he was second (22.74), 2 hundredths behind Frenchman Maxime Grousset. In the second pitch he scored 24.12 seconds and lowered Cielo's record by 5 hundredths, which he established precisely in Rome, in the 2009 World Cup. Thirteen years the record has lasted.
The young Romanian, born in 2004, has burst onto the international scene with a bang: in July he was triple European junior champion (50, 100 and 200 free) and junior world record holder in the 200 free at the World Championships in Budapest, 4 º at the Tokyo Olympics in the 200 free, and at the recent World Cup in Budapest, last June, he became the second man in history to win the 100 and 200 free finals.
Until today, only the Brazilian César Cielo (46.91) and the American Caeleb Dressel (46.91) had swum faster than Popovici in the 100 free. And in the 200, he trails only Paul Biedermann, Michael Phelps and Yannick Agnel.
