David Popovici 'chases perfection' in swimming to 200m freestyle gold at Paris Olympics (2024)

David Popovici is struggling to power on a microphone.

“Push and hold? Instructions unclear,” he jokes once he manages to get the sound system working.

For the man who loves simplicity in everything he does, it is a momentary frustration on an otherwise dazzling night at Paris 2024 that saw him become the first Romanian male swimmer to win an Olympic gold medal.

Popovici allowed himself a few moments of unbridled celebration, splashing the water after he saw his name pop up at the top of the scoreboard for the men’s 200m freestyle at Paris La Defense Arena on Monday 29 July, and making a face for photographers while posing with his gold medal.

The celebration was, however, but a moment. Half an hour later, the "Skinny Legend" was back to his familiar self: pensive, reserved and, above all, in control of his emotions.

One race was done, but the chase for perfection was still on.

“Absolutely no one is a perfect swimmer. Neither am I," he said. "No one. Neither Michael Phelps is a perfect swimmer. He is the most decorated, and the best objectively, but everyone is far from perfect. The best you can do is try and chase perfection. And that's what I had in my head and in my mind every day for training. Just trying to get close to it, but being aware that you can never touch it.”

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Popovici holds a certain mystique in swimming circles. It is partially for the way he swims, in clean and simple lines, but mostly for the way he thinks.

“He does not get in the zone. He lives in the zone,” the swimmer's former 100m freestyle rival, Bruno Fratus of Brazil, said of why Popovici functions differently from other swimmers.

An admirer of Seneca’s philosophy, the 19-year-old Romanian also brings this stoic mindset to the pool. That means not dwelling on losses, but also not celebrating the victories too much — even when Olympic gold medals are on the line.

“It was a pure dogfight,” Popovici said of Monday's men’s 200m freestyle race. “We all fought up until the last stroke with every last atom in our bodies. And today this was the result. It could have just as easily been the other way around.”

Certainly, it could have. Germany’s Lukas Maertens, the unexpected hero of the men’s 400m freestyle from the first night of swimming competition at Paris 2024, led for three-quarters of the race with Popovici back in either second or third position.

Great Britain’s Matthew Richards was neck-and-neck with the Romanian throughout the race, while USA’s Luke Hobson worked his way up from the last position to become a veritable threat to Popovici and his quest for an Olympic medal.

Sensing the danger, Popovici made a surge in the last 25 metres to touch the wall in a winning time of 1:44.72. Richards finished only 0.02 seconds behind, while Hobson was third in 1:44.79.

The pockets of spectators in the stands holding Romanian flags cheered for the man who brought them their country’s first medal at Paris 2024. True to his character, however, Popovici did not let his own enthusiasm rise too much.

“I should have gone a whole second and a half faster,” he said. “But it’s just the way it turned out, and maybe it’s for the better. Maybe I would have died on the last 50. Who knows? Or maybe I would have not and maybe I would have gone a 1.43. Who knows? We will never know.”

That stoic approach has worked well for Popovici, who has experienced a share of highs and lows in the pool since breaking onto the international scene in 2022.

That year he became the first man in nearly half a century to sweep the world titles in both the men's 100m and 200m freestyle.

In contrast, 2023 was what Popovici labelled a “transition year.” Things got overwhelming for the teen star and he fell short of the high expectations placed on him: The 2023 World Aquatics Championships were a medal-less affair and he managed to get only one bronze at the home European Short Course Swimming Championships.

Just over half a year later, he bounced back with Olympic gold.

"He's a fantastic racer," silver medallist Richards said of Popovici. "He's done something that I don't think anyone's done in the sport in a long time. He's trying different things. He's learning from them all. He's not always winning, but that's not what it's about. It's about learning and moving forwards and learning and moving forwards. I'm trying to do the same thing."

“We, the athletes, know how hard we worked to get here, and all the sacrifice, all the sweat, all the blood, metaphorically,” Popovici said of the reality behind the big race nights. “The cameras, the public only sees the glory, the shiny medals, the strong finishes and the races, but we go training whenever we have a cold, we go training whenever we have two or three hours of sleep, but we couldn’t sleep because we were stressed out about the Olympics, maybe. There’s so many sacrifices that go unnoticed, but we know them.”

Perhaps it was thoughts of these sacrifices that compelled Popovici, albeit briefly, to let out his emotions in the pool.

Smashing the water with his arm, the first Romanian male swimmer to win an Olympic gold medal, acknowledged how much it meant for his country and for himself.

“It’s a historic event," Popovici said. "And of course, I’m very happy I could do it with the country standing behind me and with me. But at the end of the day, I managed this because I did it for me. I did it for the child in me that always wanted to do this. I did it for my friends and my family, for the close team that I have next to me, and I also did it for the country. And I’m very grateful for that. It’s beautiful.”