Athlete of the Week – Swimmer David Popovici

In his first competition since the Paris Olympics, David Popovici proved that he still was the best European swimmer in the 100 and 200 metre freestyle events

Florin Orban, 01.07.2025, 13:45

In general, sports competitions dedicated to juniors or youth do not receive much attention. Expectations are limited, and results are commensurate. However, in certain disciplines, competitions between young athletes can yield great results. This was the case last week in Šamorín, Slovakia, at the The European Aquatics U23 Swimming Championships, where the European record in the 100-metre freestyle was broken. The new record holder is Romanian David Popovici, whom Radio Romania International designated Athlete of the Week.

The competition in Slovakia was Popovici’s first since last year’s Olympic Games in Paris, where he won gold in the 200-metre freestyle and bronze in the 100-metre freestyle. In Šamorín, he first competed in the event in which he is Olympic champion and won gold, finishing the final three seconds ahead of the runner-up and achieving the best time of the year. He then competed in the 50-metre freestyle, where he finished third. In the 100-metre freestyle, an event in which he once held the world record, he won the final decisively. At the same time, he set a new continental record with a time of 46 seconds and 71 hundredths, a result that represents the second-best performance of all time worldwide, but not only that, as he stated after the competition:

“I finally swam the second length of the pool in under 24 seconds. That means I’m the first person to swim the first length in 23 seconds and the second in under 24, which means more to us than the time of 46.71.”

David Popovici was born in Bucharest on 15 September 2004. He made a name for himself in junior competitions in 2021 when, at the European Championships in Rome, he won the 200, 100 and 50 metre freestyle events, setting a junior world record in the latter. He qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, where he finished fourth in the 200-metre freestyle, two hundredths of a second off the podium. At senior level, he won his first major title in November 2021 when he became European champion in the 200-metre freestyle in Kazan, Russia.

In 2022, he first triumphed at the Senior World Championships in June in Budapest. The two titles he won in the Hungarian capital, in the 100 and 200-metre freestyle events, were firsts for Romanian sport. Then, at the European Championships in Rome in August, he finished the 100-metre race in 46 seconds and 86 hundredths, a new world record. At the Olympic Games in Paris, David Popovici was the athlete on whom Romanian fans had pinned their highest hopes. And he did not disappoint. He became the new Olympic champion in the 200-metre freestyle and won the bronze medal in the 100-metre freestyle.
That was Athlete of the Week on RRI. Don’t forget you can revisit our shows on rri.ro and on Facebook. (MI)