Athlete of the Week – Constantin Popovici, world bronze in high diving
Constantin Popovici won bronze in the latest world event
Florin Orban, 29.07.2025, 13:45
These days, the World Swimming Championships are taking place in Singapore. Several Romanians are competing for medals, and the first to confirm the hopes of the fans was Constantin Popovici. On Sunday, he won bronze in high diving, for which Radio Romania International has designated him the Athlete of the Week.
On Thursday, after the first day of the competition in Singapore and the first two jumps from the platform located at a height of 27 meters, Popovici was ranked second, surpassed only by the Spaniard Carlos Gimeno. On Friday, he moved to first place, and Gimeno, in second. The American James Lichtenstein was in third place, and the other Romanian in the competition, Cătălin Preda, in fourth. On Sunday, however, in the final, the positions changed. Constantin Popovici won the bronze. The world title went to Lichtenstein, and the Spaniard Gimeno won silver. Cătălin Preda finished in 5th place.
Constantin Popovici was born in Bucharest, on October 2, 1988. In 2008, at the Beijing Olympics, he represented Romania in diving and ranked 23rd in the 10-meter platform event. He retired from competitive activity, then returned, focusing his efforts on high diving. In 2019, he was the first Romanian to win a competition in the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series circuit. In 2022, he became European champion in Rome. A year later, he won the World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, where he was followed by another Romanian, Cătălin Preda. In 2024 he became the champion of the Red Bull Cliff Diving circuit, after winning the last stage of the 2023 season, held in New Zealand.
He was designated best athlete of the year 2023 in high diving by World Aquatics, the international swimming federation. (VP)
