Romanian Swimmer David Popovici Breaks 200 meters Juniors World Record at the Olympic Games in Tokyo

David Popovici is already an extraordinary swimmer, yet only 16. He surprised the whole world and he is considered the best performance swimmer of his age in Europe.

At just 16 years old, Popovici made a formidable race in the final of the 200m at the Olympics Games in Tokyo. He started the race very well, and after the first turn of the pool, he was in third place. Meanwhile, in the last 30 meters, there was a real race between the Brazilian Fernando Schaeffer and David Popovici. It really seemed that the Romanian would get the bronze medal, but unfortunately for him, this didn’t happen.

He came in 4th place, just two-hundredths of the Brazilian Fernando Scheffer with a time of 1:44:66, who won the bronze medal. Popovici had 1:44:68.

David Popovici doesn’t even show that he is affected by this race, and he even made a joke about the event: “Have I had my nail a little longer, maybe I would’ve taken the third place and win the bronze medal!”.

David Popovici said after the event:

“I came here set to do as well as I could, and I succeeded. And I couldn’t be more satisfied. I’m waiting for my coach to scold me, I can only be happy and he will be happy too, I’m sure. My initial goal was not to take a medal, it was to gain as much experience as possible, to be able to show everyone what level I can bring the crawl to. I don’t consider that I lost the medal, I consider that I won the 4th place “

David Popovici after his 200 m swimming event at the Olympics

However, with this time, David set a new junior world record and, of course, a new national record in the 200 meters. He is the Romanian sportsman of the day, so to speak.

Also this month, David Popovici won 3 gold medals at the European Junior Swimming Championships in Rome, Italy. Also, a silver one. He got gold at 50 m, 100 m, and 200 m free events. He actually broke the junior’s world records for 100 and 200 m, thus making him the star of the Championships.

Photo source: David Popovici Facebook account