Special AGERPRES correspondent Adrian Tone reports: Swimmer David Popovici on Wednesday night said that he would like his gold and bronze medals won at the Olympic Games in Paris to trigger more investments in sports halls in Romania.
He explained that it is not normal for him to be forced to suffocate while training at the 'Lia Manoliu' Complex during the winter, when the pool is being covered with a balloon.
"I really wish that these medals would bring more attention to sports, not necessarily swimming, but sports in general. Without sports, we can not evolve very much. We have a lot of problems in our country, and the fact that we invest so little in sports is one of them. Sports can be one of the best ambassadors for a country. And I know that it's not enough to just speak of it, while I'm here, in the spotlight, and everybody is listening, but we need to put more pressure, because otherwise the leadership knows the problem. Ok, I am an Olympic champion and also a bronze medallist but, during the winter, when it's cold, at the 'Lia Manoliu' Complex, the pool is covered with a balloon, which makes me feel like I'm suffocating. So there is where we train, for that is the indoor pool at 'Lia Manoliu'. We received so many promises, for so many years, the same as it happened with that ice ring, and with other pools or arenas. We have enough stadiums, but polls and sports halls not that much," he said.
The double medallist in Paris underscored that Romania must invest more in sports halls and it must do it intelligently, in order to have more athletes to represent it in the Olympic Games.
'And I would like to see more athletes qualified for the Olympic Games, first of all. I would like Romania to bring more athletes, and then to have more finalists, more medallists maybe. We now have three people who qualified for the Olympic Games in swimming. And I must say that I feel a little envy when I watch the delegations of the countries with less inhabitants then we have but brought more athletes here than us,' said Popovici.
The Romanian swimmer won the bronze medal in 100m freestyle, on Wednesday evening, at the Olympic Games in Paris, in a final where Chinese Zhanle Pan won the gold while setting a new world record.
The final was formidable, the fastest in history, with Pan crashing his own record (46 sec 80/100) and winning the gold in 46 sec 40/100. Silver went to the former Australian Olympic champion, Kyle Chalmers, who clocked in at 47 sec 48/100, while Popovici clocked in at 47 sec 49/100.
David Popovici was just one hundredth of a second behind Chalmers, but also defeated Hungarian Nandor Nemeth, who ranked 4th, by a one hundreth of a second .
Two days before, David Popovici won the gold medal in the 100m freestyle event, after ending the semis with the 5th time (47 sec 66/100). The Romanian swimmer ranked 7th in the 100m freestyle final in 2021, at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, when he was just 16.
He was also a world record breaker, in 100m freestyle (46 sec 86/100), before Chinese Zhanle Pan broke that record.
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