David Popovici: "The world record would have made me feel hollow. Now I have something to grind for"

On the eve of David Popovici's first race at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore last year, the Romanian swimming star panicked.

Met with a confusing cocktail of emotions one day before trying to regain his 100 and 200 freestyle world titles, the 21-year-old suddenly wanted to quit and go back to Romania.

Fortunately, his girlfriend was on hand to persuade him to try his best. A couple of days later, he had two gold medals in his hands, having become the first swimmer in history to win both the 100 and 200 freestyle events at two different editions of the World Championships.

It goes to show that even the best in the world get scared. Despite still not fully understanding what happened that day, Popovici now believes those feelings are a prerequisite for achieving potential.

“Being scared is a huge part of life. In fact, it's necessary,” Popovici told Olympics.com.

“You cannot have glory or success and really enjoy it if you haven't been through some pain and through some very tough times. And so whenever I have those times, I know I can thankfully count on my support group - that means my family, my girlfriend, my really close friends, and my coaches.

“When I know they're going to treat me the same way no matter the result, then I can focus on what I have to do. Most of the time it's good, but even if it's not, they're still there, they're still going to love me the same.”

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David Popovici: I think it's really easy to fall into the illusion that it's life or death, as it can sometimes feel like it.

Mental struggles in elite sport are commonplace, but swimmers sometimes seem to suffer from burnout at a higher rate than most.

With Caeleb Dressel, Kaylee McKeown, and Adam Peaty having all taken breaks from the sport recently, Popovici relates to their fatigue.

“I think it's a very lonely sport. It can at times also get boring because, look at tennis players, for example. I'm not saying they have it easy, but they have tournaments every other week or so. Us swimmers have probably two or a maximum of three major competitions per year. So we rarely get the chance to really see where we're at in big competitions.

“Ninety per cent of our time is spent in the pool, at the gym or at home trying to sleep early, wake up early, eat the right food, and have zero to almost no social life.

“You usually get a maximum of two minutes of a break per training. But these difficulties are what make it satisfying and rewarding every time you get to those two or three major competitions. I think it's really easy to fall into the illusion that it's life or death, as it can sometimes feel like it.”

Popovici's roller-coaster career

Many elite athletes suffer from a fear of failing to meet expectations, but Popovici’s anxiety was likely due to the opposite.

Despite being 21, he has had a roller-coaster career.

He burst to global swimming stardom in 2022 as a 17-year-old with an astonishing 100/200 men’s freestyle sprint double at the World Championships, before breaking the 100 free world record later that year at the European Aquatics Championships.

But Popovici was given a harsh reality check a year later. Despite going into the 2023 World Championships as the favourite in his two favoured events, he faded in the finals, eventually settling for fourth in the 200 free and sixth in the 100.

After rediscovering his fire to take 200 free Olympic gold and 100 free bronze at Paris 2024 in a brilliant performance, he suffered from a lack of motivation with ‘post-Olympic blues’, having achieved everything he’d ever dreamed of.

With many wondering if he’d break the world record again in Singapore, the Bucharest native started to worry about what effect achieving it - or not - might have on his motivation.

“The fear I had just before these World Championships made me want to scratch all of the events I was in for. I didn't know why, I felt very confused. Usually I'm so in control of my feelings. But I was feeling scared and not ready to be vulnerable, not ready to open up,” he continued.

“I realised that it's not about being scared of losing. It was more about how in training I've gotten to see how good I can really be, and so I've scratched that potential of mine. And just seeing that, feeling that and knowing that here I could swim some amazing times, for me it was just a whole new kind of scary, which I couldn't really comprehend.

"It really overwhelmed me because this next level of fear is basically being afraid of how good you could ever be because, even then, what if it’s not enough? I'm really glad that, with the help of my support group, I managed to find the power in myself to give it a try, simply participate, and also get out of there with two medals.

“The fact that I didn't set the world record this time is major for me. If I had done it, I think I would have left Singapore feeling hollow. I still want to have something to grind for, and to look forward to after my holiday, that makes me want to get up in the morning and train for.”

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