David Popovici is youngest man to break swimming world record since Michael Phelps

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David Popovici, a 17-year-old Romanian known as the Chlorine Daddy, grew to become the youngest male swimmer to interrupt a person world file since Michael Phelps.

Popovici lowered a 13-year-old file within the 100m freestyle, arguably the trademark occasion within the sport, to 46.86 seconds on the European Championships in Rome on Saturday.

He broke the mark of 46.91 set by Brazilian Cesar Cielo on the 2009 World Championships on the peak of the since-banned high-tech swimsuit period, on the identical pool on the Foro Italico. Popovici grew to become the second-youngest man to carry the world file within the occasion after American Andy Coan, who held it for 20 days at age 17 in 1975.

“It [the world record] wasn’t the precedence, that’s for certain,” Popovici told European Aquatics. “There was no rush, and I needed to be extraordinarily affected person in regards to the world file.”

Popovici, who turns 18 on Sept. 15, grew to become the youngest man to interrupt a person world file in an Olympic swimming occasion since Phelps set the fourth of his 29 particular person information in 2003, according to Gracenote.

Then on Monday, Popovici gained the 200m free in 1:42.97, the fourth-fastest time in historical past and quickest ever outdoors of the since-banned go well with period.

Popovici made his first huge splash final yr, dropping his 100m free private greatest by 1.96 seconds and swimming a time that may have gained the 2016 Olympics. He missed a Tokyo Olympic medal within the 200m free by two hundredths of a second whereas decreasing his private greatest by .58.

At June’s world championships in Budapest, he grew to become the youngest man to win a world title in 15 years and the primary man or girl to brush the 100m and 200m frees at a worlds for the reason that first version in 1973.

After successful the 200m free at worlds in 1:43.21, a world junior file and the world’s greatest time for any age in 10 years, he was anticipated to have a showdown with Olympic gold medalist Caeleb Dressel within the 100m free till Dressel withdrew from the meet on unspecified medical grounds.

Additionally Saturday, Hungarian Kristof Milak took silver behind Popovici’s world file in 47.47 seconds, a time that may have additionally taken silver at worlds. Milak is the Olympic and world champion and world file holder within the 200m butterfly and world champion within the 100m fly, the place Dressel holds the world file and Olympic title.

“My aim could be very clear: I simply need to attain a degree on this occasion to reach to Paris 2024 with the aptitude of swimming a time someplace very near 47 [seconds],” Milak mentioned, based on FINA.

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