“The dragonfly sums up my ability, my personality and my environment. It is small and harmless, but it flies beautifully and elegantly over the water, leaving its predators behind. The precision of the Dragonfly routine perfectly describes my training and its delicacy translates into my performance. Also, their wings are a symbol of freedom, hence the freestyle”. The phrase is from David Popovici, who this 2023, on the 50th anniversary of Arena, will wear a swimsuit with the insect on one of the thighs. The ‘dragonfly’ flees from the predators of the 100 free, great swimmers throughout history that the Romanian wants to leave behind.
From Alfred Hájos (first Olympic champion and who gives its name to the Budapest pool) to Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku (who invented the crawl style and double Olympic champion), following for Johnny Weissmuller (first man to go under 1:00 and double Olympic gold) and Mark Spitz to the most recent, such as Russian Alexander Popov, the Dutch Peter Van den Hoogenband or the American Caeleb Dressel, one of his rivals at the 2024 Paris Games. Popovici, who is already a world champion and who holds the distance record (46.86), hopes to be crowned for the first time in Paris. “David is skinny now, but he is strong enough to swim at high speeds. I am sure that if he has more strength he will also know how to handle it in the same way that he has been doing today. But it will be quite a challenge that we have to start exploring”, explains his coach, Adrian Radulescu.
Popovici’s style, that silky swim, is reminiscent of Mark Spitz, Olympic champion in the 100 and 200 freestyle at the 1972 Munich Games. Although his wingspan (2.05m) brings him closer to Popov, who is two meters tall, who always commented that “My challenge is to conquer the water, never challenge it”, for its ease of sliding in the race with hardly any effort. A characteristic that was also shared by the Australian Ian Thorpe (200 and 400 free) and the Dutchman Peter van den Hoogenband (100 and 200 free), who gave rise to some historic duels in the 100 and 200, along with Michael Phelps. Popovici has arrived to mark an era in both tests with the challenge of the 400 in the future. No swimmer has been able to win all three tests. The dragonfly could be the first.