After Stunning Upset, Expect David Popovici to Bounce Back

David Popovici of Romania competes in the Men's Freestyle 200m Heats during the 20th World Aquatics Championships at the Marine Messe Hall A in Fukuoka (Japan), July 24th, 2023.

David Popovici -- Photo Courtesy: Andrea Masini / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

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After Stunning Upset, Expect David Popovici to Bounce Back

For 150 meters, we were watching the familiar intensity that David Popovici deployed to magnificent effect during his breakout year in 2023. After lurking through the first two rounds of the men’s 200 freestyle and still doing enough to claim lane four in the final, Popovici was expected to come out on night three and dominate all four laps of the final. A half-second up after 50 meters, and he was doing just that.

At the final turn, Popovici’s lead was eight tenths, and he was quicker than his pace from his European record last August, a swim of 1:42.97 that made him the third man in history after Michael Phelps and Paul Biedermann to break 1:43 and the first man ever to do so in a textile suit. The Romanian teenager equipped with race-breaking closing speed, Popovici would surely break away to collect his second world title in the 200 free and third such gold medal overall.

Except he didn’t. In a stunning turn of events, the lead vanished, with South Korea’s Hwang Sunwoo catching Popovici first and the British duo of Matt Richards and Tom Dean in close pursuit. After a 26.01 finishing split in his record swim last year, Popovici inexplicably faded badly this time, his technique deteriorating as lactic acid buildup claimed the early leader while the other three main contenders surged.

In the end, Richards won gold in 1:44.30, with Dean touching two hundredths later to complete the British sweep and Hwang another tenth back for third. Popovici, fourth in 1:44.90, slower than his semifinal time of 1:44.60 and a whopping two seconds behind his best from one year ago.

For the third consecutive year, the early leader in the men’s 200 free final suffered badly at the end. At the Tokyo Olympics, it was Hwang scorching the opening half of the race before completely collapsing down the stretch, falling all the way to seventh. Dean tried the strategy at the 2022 Worlds before falling to third. But in this case, Popovici was not swimming quicker than he had ever been before over the initial portions of the race.

No, he simply tightened up, a poor closing split of 28.12, the slowest out of all eight swimmers, leading to a debacle of a performance at the worst possible time, Popovici’s first-ever setback at a major international competition.

And it was a shocker, no doubt, the biggest upset through three days of swimming so far at the World Championships. Sure, no one expected Summer McIntosh to miss the podium in the women’s 400 free or Lilly King to come in fourth in the women’s 100 breaststroke, but neither was considered an absolute lock to win, substantially clear of anyone else in the field.

In this men’s 200 free, Popovici was as strong a favorite as any man at the World Championships, maybe not a Katie Ledecky-in-distance-freestyle level favorite but not far off. Such was the nature of his performances last year, with a 1:42 bringing Biedermann’s suit-aided world record of 1:42.00 into the conversation for the first time. But instead, Great Britain gets to celebrate the nation’s second 1-2 finish at a major meet in recent years after Dean and Duncan Scott occupied the top two spots in the event at the Tokyo Olympics.

And what’s next for Popovici? Concede that his preparation this year was flawed, and flush this meet? Would Popovici subconsciously check out and reset himself mentally, his sights set on the 2024 Olympics in Paris before he even swims the 100 free?

Many swimmers would. Most humans would. Work an entire year for two moments, and the first crumbles. Picking oneself up from that sort of psychological abyss is as challenging as any physical aspect of sport. And Popovici gets a mere 14 hours to do so before he takes on the 100 freestyle, the event in which he broke a 13-year-old world record last year.

While catching Popovici looked like a momentous task in the 200 free before it happened, a very real rival awaits in the 100-meter event: Kyle Chalmers, coming in after two days of rest following a 46.56 relay anchor which lifted Australia’s men to gold in the 400 free relay. Chalmers owns a best time of 47.08, just two tenths off Popovici’s world record of 46.86, and he has already been as fast as 47.44 from a flat start earlier this year.

But this is David Popovici, an 18-year-old with an established track record as a miracle worker in the pool. He was the one who broke that 100 free world record, not Chalmers, Caeleb Dressel or any of the other men who came so close. Why can’t Popovici rebound in no time? It’s hard to imagine physical limitations after the first half of his 200 free was superb. And his maturity and poise has been evident at every opportunity, so why should it be any different through disappointment?

Accordingly, in the moments after the race, Popovici sought a silver lining

“It felt awful, but that means we can improve something and that is a good thing,” Popovici said, per World Aquatics. “If you have the absolute perfect race and you have nothing else to improve. You know that you’ve basically reached the top, the limit, you can do nothing better from there on. I’m glad it happened now, and I’m sure it has a meaning that I’m going to learn from it.”

What is surely the biggest disappointment of his life becomes a learning opportunity. Classic Popovici. That attitude, above any physical gifts, will be the reason that Popovici returns to his usual golden ways soon enough, possibly as soon as this upcoming 100 free showdown with Chalmers. This fourth-place finish will be regarded as a blip.

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Jacob

9 months ago

Jeez, what crushing commentary 😅 lighten up a bit