Pacy David Popovici puts Paris Olympics 100m freestyle rivals on notice

BELGRADE – Romanian wunderkind David Popovici underlined his credentials for Olympic gold in the 100m freestyle, as he claimed the European title on June 19 with a blistering swim that threatened Pan Zhanle’s world record.

The 19-year-old clocked 46.88 seconds in the Belgrade pool, the third-fastest swim in history and 0.08sec off the world mark set by China’s Pan at the World Championships in Doha in February.

“I just went as good as I could and the time wasn’t planned,” Popovici said.

“But again the time is never planned, only the strategy. If you have a good strategy and you have it well planned, then you have more chances of success.”

The teenager now has two of the top-three 100m swims of all-time, having set the previous world record of 46.86sec at the 2022 European Championships, before Pan broke it.

“I am one of the favourites in the world, (but) I am not the first one, not the fastest one, so that really motivates me,” Popovici added, claiming that it is good being more of an “underdog”.

Fellow 19-year-old Pan was confirmed in China’s Olympic team on June 18, and will be a strong competitor to Popovici as the Chinese swimmer hopes to add the Paris gold to his world title from Doha.

Only five swimmers have broken the 47-second barrier in the event and the Americans were hoping to do the same at the United States’ ongoing Olympic trials in Indianapolis.

However, there were none as dominant as Popovici as Chris Guiliano triumphed in 47.38sec and Jack Alexy grabbed second spot in 47.47sec.

Caeleb Dressel was squeezed out in third (47.53sec) in the cut-throat US trials, where only the top two finishers in each event can claim individual berths for the summer Games in Paris.

The 27-year-old won five golds in Tokyo in 2021, including the 50m and 100m free, and the 100m butterfly.

He took his career tally to seven Olympic golds, but stepped away from the sport abruptly in 2022 and is on the comeback trail after a nine-month break – so some rustiness should not come as a surprise.

Dressel will not defend his 100m free title, but after a storming final he believes he is ready to make relay history in the 4x100m free, where after a look at the scoreboard he said a world record was possible.

“I don’t think we should shy away from it. I think the world record is 47.3 average, so we’ve got a shot at that,” he said, and added after a closer inspection of the times: “Oh my gosh, top six were under 48. That’s pretty quick.”

The Americans will also undoubtedly have high hopes for fellow seven-gold Olympian Katie Ledecky, who cruised to another dominating win in her signature event, the 1,500m free.

After already securing her place at a fourth Games by winning the 200m and 400m freestyle this week, the 21-gold world champion made it a hat-trick of titles by touching home in 15min 37.35sec, the fastest time in the event in 2024.

Having posted the 18 fastest times in the world, there was never any doubt about who was going to get to the wall first, and Ledecky was as usual racing against herself and the clock.

Katie Grimes was next to come home, more than 20 seconds behind.

The only person unimpressed by Ledecky’s performance was the 27-year-old herself.

“I was pretty excited coming into tonight, would have wanted to swim a little faster but I’ll take it,” the most decorated female swimmer said.

Her time was just 0.01sec off her gold-medal time at the Tokyo Games.

“I’ll be better in a few weeks. Just looking forward to getting together as a team and getting to know each other, push each other and go represent Team USA.” REUTERS