Alexander Popov Reflects on Life of Gennadi Touretski & What Makes a Perfect 100 Freestyle in Brett Hawke Podcast

Photo Courtesy: Bill Collins / Swimming World Archive

Brett Hawke sat down a second time with legendary sprinter Alexander Popov due to popular demand for Hawke’s 100th episode. Popov recently lost his long-time personal coach Gennadi Touretski, who died this year, and reflected on his career under him (3:00) and how he reacted to the shocking news.

Popov shared the last time he talked to Touretski (6:30) when he called him on his birthday and again to check in on his health. Popov’s relationship with Touretski had continued when Popov’s children started to swim and started to swim for Touretski.

Alexander Popov discussed what specific things he learned from Touretski (11:30) that made him a great swimmer and what he hopes his legacy will be (20:00) as a revolutionary coach. The pair reminisced on how their outlook on sprinting under Touretski (20:20) when he moved to Australia and if he was jealous when he started helping Popov’s peers and rivals when they moved.

Popov then went through what a perfect 100 freestyle looked to him (26:00) and what Touretski told him was the key to success and some sets he did to achieve his goal. Although he was very technically sound, Popov explained why he never wore a swim cap (31:00) during his career.

Alexander Popov was known as one of the top sprinters of his era, and he explained what made a perfect 50 freestyle (32:20) and what he did to minimize mistakes. The pair also went over their semi-final meeting in the 50 freestyle at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney where Popov came out on top (35:00) and Hawke did not advance to the final.

Popov also went over why he decided to race in a brief at the 2000 Olympics (37:00) rather than go for the full bodysuits which were worn by his rivals Pieter van den Hoogenband and Michael Klim. Popov still won the silver medal in the 100 free, but many believe he could have won the gold medal had he worn the modern suits that were prevalent at the time.

He talked about who in modern sprinting he enjoys watching (39:50) and why he thinks Caeleb Dressel and Kyle Chalmers are so far in front of the rest of the world, including the improvements in strength training.

Alexander Popov also gave an update on the status of the Russian Olympic ban, where the country was barred from flying its flag at the 2020 Olympic Games. He talked about the status of sprint freestyle in Russia, as he gave plaudits to Worlds bronze medalist Vladislav Grinev (44:30) and doubts at Vladimir Morozov’s chances of being an individual medalist (45:30) in the future.

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