David Popovici Hoping for Return to World-Record Form in 2026
He might already be the best Romanian swimmer in history at just 21 years old. David Popovici already has two Olympic medals, including one gold, and he is a four-time world champion. No other Romanian man has ever won Olympic gold in swimming while the only women who accomplished the feat before Popovici were Diana Mocanu and Camilla Potec. Indeed, Popovici is already a transcendent star in his home country, similar in stature to Leon Marchand and Summer McIntosh in their respective nations.
And like those two swimmers now considered clearly the best in the world, Popovici is still young in his swimming career, with plenty of years remaining for him to wrack up medals and possibly records. Remember, he was only 16 years old when he made his Olympic debut, missing out on a medal in the Tokyo 200 free final by just four hundredths. Popovici had his golden moment at Paris at age 19.
Now, he’s 21 and considered the world’s best freestyler. He reclaimed that title last July in Singapore with world titles in his two main events. The 200 free final saw Popovici surge past American challenger Luke Hobson to record a time of 1:43.53, his best in three years, and win gold by three tenths. Two days later, Popovici swam the second-fastest time in history for gold in the 100 free, four tenths clear of Jack Alexy.
David Popovici — Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
This year marks the first since Popovici’s emergence without a global-level long course competition, but he will be just fine focusing on the European Championships, set for the same French capital that produced his Olympic success. The continental format has already provided a excellent stage for Popovici, who has swept the 100 and 200 free at successive editions of the meet.
The first, the 2022 meet in Rome, currently stands as the best performance of Popovici’s career, and it will be a hard bar to clear. Just over a month before his 18th birthday, Popovici reached unprecedented territory. First came the 100 free, where Popovici swam successive times of 47.20, 46.98 and 46.86. The was a meet record in prelims and a European record in semis before Popovici finally cleared the world record, a vaunted 46.91 that had belonged to Brazil’s Cesar Cielo for 13 years.
Immediately after, Popovici took on the 200 free and achieved a level not seen since the era of polyurethane bodysuits that resulted in an almost-complete rewriting of the sport’s record books. Popovici swam a time of 1:42.97, behind only the suit-aided marks of Paul Biedermann and Michael Phelps all-time. It was that performance that first showed the world Biedermann’s world record of 1:42.00 might not last forever.
Those efforts plus the world titles he won two months earlier made Popovici the choice as World Swimmer of the Year, marking the last time anyone surpassed Marchand in that balloting.
In 2026, Popovici has shown signs he’s building toward another world-record run at the European Championships. He posted solid results at last week’s Romanian Championships, with times of 22.01 in the 50 free, 1:45.89 in the 200 free and 47.52 in the 100, along with a 46-second relay split. All good enough for wins and all strong signs for a swimmer who tends to continue progressively dropping time as the season goes along.
This year, Popovici will be competing to post quicker times than his rivals around the world, with Alexy, Hobson and Kyle Chalmers among those racing at the Pan Pacific Championships while Pan swims at the Asian Games. And the world will have to be on record watch.
Popovici previously owned the 100 free world record for two years before Pan Zhanle came along and went 46.40 in the Olympic final. That time appeared to be far out of range for any other swimmer before Popovici was only 0.11 shy last year. A return to that level, perhaps even faster, could be in the cards. As for the 200, could Popovici get back into the 1:42s, again bringing Biedermann’s record into play?