Double world and European champion David Popovici participated, on Monday, in the launch of the Dinamo Sports Club's Swimming Academy, a project that aims to initiate, in the next 10 years, 15,000 children, with one of these to participate in the 2028 Olympic Games, told Agerpres.
"I am here because I believe in this project, but especially in the people who are part of this project. The most important aspect seems to me is that Dinamo aims to teach children to swim through play, just as I learned. It's the best way to fall in love with water. It's important to know how to swim because you never know when it might save your life. At the same time, it's a very beautiful sport, one that I've grown to love. I trust in the project because I know that at its base are the best people, I am here to strengthen this image. I wish success to those who are part of the project. Sport is beneficial and very good for children. Children must do a sport, and swimming is a very good method to start a sport," he stated in a press conference.
"It is a personal satisfaction because I will be able to see up close what I was like when I was little. I will be able to closely observe how they will grow and how some of them will manage to be part of the Romanian Olympic team in several years. If we they align the training programs, I will definitely come to the academy, I am convinced that the little ones will be happy to see me," added David Popovici.
The president of sports club Dinamo, Ionut Adrian Popa, declared that the Swimming Academy could not have been realized without David Popovici.
"Last year we started with an idea to establish a swimming academy like the other academies of the Dinamo club and here we are today in front of the accomplished fact. The project aims to identify and train new talents like David Popovici for the Olympic Games in 2028 and 2032. Of course this project could not have been realized without David Popovici, first of all we would not have had the idea of creating this academy. Almost everything I have undertaken in my mandate had a financial recipe. We watch year after year for Dinamo to get as much as possible from their own income. We are trying to manage ourselves, that is, to finance ourselves," said Popa.
Mihai Popovici, the father of the double world and European champion, was appointed manager of the Dinamo Swimming Academy. He mentioned that he would like the project to be an example for other clubs in the country and even for other disciplines.
"Tomorrow this new project officially starts, the president of the Dinamo club proposed me to coordinate this project. I didn't think twice and joined, trying to bring with me the best experts who can contribute to this project. We have one of the best coaches in the world for children and juniors in the person of Walter Bolognani, and next to him there are 9 others among the best coaches in Romania. The first thing we want to achieve is to help 15,000 children learn to swim in the next 10 years, and the second objective, in terms of performance, is to have at least one swimmer trained at Dinamo participate in the Olympic Games in 2028, other than David Popovici or Robert Glinta, and at least one athlete who reach a final at the 2032 Olympic Games. These are very ambitious goals, but we are convinced that we will achieve them. I would very much like this project to be cloned and applied in other places in the country at some point. We want to be an example for others and not only in swimming, but also in other disciplines," stated Mihai Popovici.
The technical coordinator will be Walter Bolognani, former coordinator of all the junior and youth teams of Italy, who said that he aims for the results to be achieved step by step.
"I am very proud and happy to be present here. In September I was contacted by the president Ionut Popa for this ambitious project of the Dinamo club. It is a new challenge for me, in another part of Europe, where I have the opportunity to test myself and to offer all my experience and knowledge to the Dinamo club. There is a great potential and I think we can have important results in the medium term as time. Tomorrow we start with the initiation program, which represents the foundation, and then we will give 100% to satisfy the high expectations of this club. In the competitive program we will try to achieve results step by step, month by month and year by year. To a certain extent we must forget the word 'champion', because the most important thing is to raise children in a perfect environment. I was welcomed here like a king, but I'm not a king, I'm just a man who dedicated his whole professional life to swimming. I was a lucky man because I got good results. But I'm not interested in the CV data, the CV is in the past," he mentioned.
David Popovici's coach, Adrian Radulescu, says that Romania has talented children and that the academy will offer them a suitable environment to learn to swim and achieve performance.
"I live with the conviction that the human resource is much more important than the material one. I am glad that this project aims to teach children to swim and at the same time provide them with a suitable environment to perfect themselves as athletes. I think we have potentially, I think we have gifted children. And I think that more than seeing where we are and how we're doing with the material resources we have to make an effort from a human point of view and try to be better versions of ourselves as teachers and instructors to raise the future generations," stated Radulescu.
Present at the press conference, the president of Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee, Mihai Covaliu, stated that the Dinamo Swimming Academy has all the ingredients for the project to be a success.
"The basis of performance sports is mass sports, and our duty is to create as many such facilities as possible for swimming in this case, but also for the other disciplines. This is so that in the shortest possible time we have athletes of the highest performance and of which we can be proud. I congratulate the people from CS Dinamo for laying the foundations of such a project that aims to select and train athletes for the Olympic Games in 2028 and 2032. David Popovici is the example he sees everyone, we have specialists, we have managers, so this academy has all the ingredients of a successful project," stated Covaliu.
Comentează