Is David Popovici The Fastest 50/100/200 Freestyler Ever?

An interesting question came across our desks here at SwimSwam recently, courtesy of reader Angus Croak: Is David Popovici the fastest swimmer ever across the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle? That is, if we add up each swimmer’s personal best time in each distance, would the Romanian teenager come out on top?

Despite being just 17 years of age, Popovici has already cemented himself as one of the world’s fastest freestyle swimmers, with his (current) best event coming in the 100 free. Unlike the majority of men whose best race is the 100, Popovici has shown the ability to both come up to the 200 and down to the 50 free at an elite level, though for now he’s a far superior 200 swimmer than he is a pure sprinter.

Popovici’s best times are currently the following:

• 50 free – 22.22
• 100 free – 47.30
• 200 free – 1:44.68

That brings his total add-up time to 2:54.20. As it turns out, Popovici is not quite the fastest across the three distances combined, though he’s not far off in the textile rankings.

The fastest ever, regardless of suit, is Germany’s Paul Biedermann, which should come as no surprise given his world record in the 200 free (1:42.00) is significantly faster than anyone else in history, with only Michael Phelps (1:42.96) within a second of him.

Phelps has quicker bests in the 50 and 100 free, but falls just shy of catching Biedermann in the overall add-up.

The idea and primary research for this article came from Angus Croak, so big credit and shout to Angus.

All-Time Rankings, Men’s 50, 100 & 200 Free Combined (LCM)

If we look at the textile suit rankings, Yannick Agnel leads the pack, largely due to his monstrous 1:43.14 swim in the 200 free from the 2012 London Olympics.

Australian Cameron McEvoy sits second, still ranking as the second-fastest swimmer ever in the textile 100 free (47.04) behind Caeleb Dressel (46.96), while Popovici ranks a close third.

It’s also amazing to see that, given the constant comparisons made between the two, Dressel and Kyle Chalmers are tied down to the hundredths in their combined time.

All-Time Textile Rankings, Men’s 50, 100 & 200 Free Combined (LCM)

Pieter van den Hoogenband holds up as the best across the three disciplines from the early 2000s, narrowly missing becoming the first swimmer sub-22/48/1:45. At the 2000 Games in Sydney, when the Dutchman set the world record of 47.84 in the 100 free and upset Ian Thorpe in the 200 free on his home turf, van den Hoogenband won bronze in the 50 free in 22.03, which stood up as his career best time.

In addition to the 2000 Olympics, van den Hoogenband also medalled in all three distances at the 2001 and 2003 World Championships, a rare feat that was most recently matched by Sarah Sjostrom at the 2019 World Championships.

On the men’s side, Matt Biondi was the last to do so, getting on the podium in all three at the 1988 Olympics in addition to the 1986 World Championships.

Thorpe, widely regarded as the best pure mid-distance freestyler in history, doesn’t have an official long course 50 free best time on record, though if we use his fastest opening 50 from a 100 free swim (something that’s done for Phelps here–though not on the textile list), his add-up would be 2:56.19.

However, strictly looking at 100/200 free add-ups (textile), Thorpe cracks the all-time top 10 in ninth, while Popovici is third.

All-Time Textile Rankings, Men’s 100 & 200 free Combined (LCM)

Along with Popovici, another swimmer who sits extremely high in these historical rankings despite the fact he’s not yet 20 years old is South Korean Hwang Sunwoo, whose add-up is less than four-tenths shy of Popovici’s and less than a second back of Agnel for the textile lead.

Popovici, Hwang and Duncan Scott are also the three in the running to be the first sub-22/48/1:45 in history, with it coming down to who can crack 22 seconds in the 50 free first.

So while Popovici isn’t the fastest across the three distances, it’s only a matter of time before he, Scott or Hwang take the number one spot, at least in a textile suit.