“It’s just a matter of time”- David Popovici can break the 200m freestyle record, claims Michael Phelps
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Michael Phelps IMAGO/ PanoramiC
David Popovici is a new bloke in the town and is taking some big strides in the world of swimming and even legendary Michael Phelps will agree to this. It won’t be even wrong to say that the 18-year-old kid has something special and is destined to reach great heights in the near future.
The young Romanian is the hottest property in the pool these days and the former American swimmer Michael Phelps is convinced that the young sensation will be the next big thing in swimming.
With 28 Olympic medals that include 23 gold under his belt, Phelps is arguably the “GOAT” inside the pool and the former American swimmer believes that Paul Biedermann’s record in 200m freestyle is in jeopardy and Popovici will be the first one to break the record of 1.42 minutes in the 200, freestyle.
Following Michael Phelps path of champions, David Popovici won Budapest World and Rome European Championships this year
“It’s just a matter of time,” Phelps said. “Popovici, in my opinion, is going to be the first swimmer to go under 1.42, a record that people thought was untouchable. If there is one person in the world capable of doing it, it’s Popovici. It’s just a matter of time, he’s 18 years old.”
Having won the 100m and 200m freestyle double at both the Budapest World Championships and the Rome European Championships this summer, Popovici has become the talk of the town and is being compared to many swimming greats.
The time the young prodigy swam was 46.86 seconds and that beat Brazil’s Cesar Cielo’s world record in the 100m freestyle that he has set in 2009. Although Popovici won the European 200m freestyle championship with a time of 1:42.97, he missed Biedermann’s record by 97 hundredths of a second.
Phelps also heaped praise on another upcoming superstar Leon Marchand. The legendary swimmer thinks that this 20-year-old kid from France can surely beat his records in the future. Coincidentally Bob Bowman, Phelps’ former coach at Arizona State University, trains Marchand.
“He’s a hungry kid, he’s hungry to be the best, to beat the world record and obviously he’s four tenths off it, so … I hope, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I hold the record for another year,” Phelps said.
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