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David Popovici Fires Off 46.88 100 Freestyle To Defend European Title, #3 Swim In History

2024 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS

MEN’S 100 FREESTYLE – FINAL

  1. David Popovici, Romania, 46.88
  2. Nandor Nemeth, Hungary, 47.49
  3. Andrej Barna, Serbia, 47.66

David Popovici of Romania defended his European Title from two years ago swimming to a 46.88, closing strong on the final 5. Popovici’s best time stands at a 46.86 that he swam at this meet two years ago to also set a World Record at the time.

Popovici moves up in the World Rankings so far this year, sitting only behind China’s Pan Zhanle who broke Popovici’s World record at the 2024 World Championships swimming a 46.80. The two will look to battle it out next month at the Paris Olympics. Popovici’s previous season best stood at a 47.82 that he swam last night in semifinals, which sat him at t-#11 swimmer in the World this season.

2023-2024 LCM Men 100 Free

ZhanleCHN
PAN
07/31
WR 46.40
2David
POPOVICI
ROU46.8806/19
3Jack
ALEXY
USA47.0806/18
4Chris
GUILIANO
USA47.2506/18
5Maxime
GROUSSET
FRA47.3306/18
View Top 31»

In addition to moving up in the World rankings this season, Popovici’s swim today was also one of the fastest swims in history. This swim marked the 9th sub-47 second swim in history and Popovici’s 3rd time under the mark as well. Pan has also been under the 47-second mark three times in his career.

Top 5 All-Time Fastest Men’s 100 LCM Free Performances

  1. Pan Zhanle, China, 46.80 (2024)
  2. David Popovici, Romania, 46.86 (2022)
  3. David Popovici, Romania, 46.88 (2024)
  4. Cesar Cielo, Brazil, 46.91 (2009)
  5. Alain Bernard, France, 46.94 (2009)

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Nic
4 months ago

Hey, David will fire 46,60 at Olympics.. I got this feeling.

Andy
Reply to  Nic
4 months ago

I’m happy with even a 49 if he wins a gold 🙂

John26
4 months ago

Honestly thought a swim of this caliber would have more comments. 😵‍💫

Guess there’s only so much fast swimming we can handle in a week

HWS
4 months ago

Hot take: Chalmers misses the Olympic final (yes I’m prepared to be ratioed)

Boomer
Reply to  HWS
4 months ago

Definitely possible but he’s such a seasoned and tough racer I think this only happens if his back injury gets a lot worse

Spotted Zebra
4 months ago

“[Numerous] SwimSwam morons” = SwimSwamorons? 🤔 It is certainly fun to say. 😆

Genevieve Nnaji
4 months ago

SKINNY LEGEND IS BACK!

I wonder if any swimmer will suddenly get a case of Popovicitis.

Troyy
Reply to  Genevieve Nnaji
4 months ago

Maybe that was why someone was smiling despite missing top two.

Jalen T
4 months ago

LETS GO DADDY POP. DUDE IS GONNA EMBARASS DRESSEL

Genevieve Nnaji
Reply to  Jalen T
4 months ago

How can you embarrass someone when that person isn’t even competing?

Andy
Reply to  Jalen T
4 months ago

Can we stop with these stupid comments? Dressel is a 7 time Olympic champion, I don’t think he cares not having the best time in some event after a long pause and near retirement. Plus David still needs to produce this form at the Olympics.

Mojo
Reply to  Jalen T
4 months ago

Dressel is a fantastic swimmer and, more important, a great human being. Someone like Popovici will always respect a swimmer like Dressel. Is just (sport) common sense.

Luis
4 months ago

22.5/23.9 incoming

Dan
4 months ago

These kind of times are when you have God on your side

ITR
Reply to  Dan
4 months ago

these kind of times are when you put the necessary training in both in and out of the pool.

there, fify.

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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