David POPOVICI

David Popovici took the swimming world by storm in 2022 when, aged 17, he became the first male swimmer in 49 years to win the 100m and 200m freestyle at the same World Championships.

This performance also made the previously relatively unknown Romanian the second-youngest swimmer ever to win the men's 200m freestyle world title.

Popovici went on to make more history at the 2022 European Championships, where he clocked 46.86 seconds in the 100m freestyle final to break Cesar Cielo's 13-year-old world record.

Showing no signs of fatigue, the Bucharest native then won the 200m freestyle at the same event with a new world junior record of 1:42.97.

The stage has been set for a potentially epic showdown between Popovici and the 100m freestyle reigning Olympic champion Caeleb Dressel at the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka.

Popovici's achievements to date are all the more impressive considering that he started swimming as a four-year-old on a doctor's recommendation as a way of correcting his early-stage scoliosis - a condition in which the spine has a sideways curve.