Swimmer David Popovici, double world champion in Singapore (100 m freestyle and 200 m freestyle), on Sunday stated on his return to the Otopeni airport in Bucharest that he feels proud of his achievements and denied the rumor about a possible retirement.
''I still love swimming, I don't know where that information came from, but even though it was a competition and I had a difficult time, I managed to pull myself together and exceed my own expectations. I am super proud of myself and the Romanian team, and also of my team, the one that is behind me. No, there is no chance I am retiring. I mean, I love swimming. If this will be the case, when it will be the case, and I have no idea when, sometime in the future, you will find out from me," said David Popovici, who spoke to the journalists alongside the other Romanian swimmer who competed in Singapore, who came out 18th in the 100 m butterfly.
The double world champion explained the pivotal moment before the World Championships, when he was on the verge of giving up on the competition in Singapore: ''I'm very proud of myself and much more than the medals and the scores I achieved I'm proud of the fact that, although I wanted to give up and I was so close to giving up on this competition, I somehow found, together with my family and my girlfriend and my friends, I somehow found the strength in myself to continue, proving to myself that it's OK and that I can and that maybe I shouldn't doubt myself so much. And honestly, it seems to me that this is a topic that is perhaps considered a bit taboo in sports in general, maybe in Romanian sports as well, (...) and it seems to me that more athletes should talk about the moments when they also doubted their own strength. (...) I am an athlete, but at the end of the day I am a human being. Last year was a very difficult year for me, which came with a new set of challenges no one seemed to warn me about. For no one told me how difficult it would be including when I will be doing well, which is a bit strange. (...) But it was a very difficult year for me, it was very hard for me to find the motivation, after the greatest success of my life in Paris, when I became an Olympic champion.''
Popovici then added that he hopes his successes will speed up the renovation of the ''Lia Manoliu'' swimming pool: ''I don't think the state is doing everything it can in this direction of making sports a national priority and as I have always said, I think sports are the best ambassador of a country. And I am not just speaking of swimming, right now, but of sports in general. And swimming is a very healthy sport."
Romanian swimmer David Popovici won two gold medals, in the 100 and 200 m freestyle events, at the World Swimming Championships in Singapore. He thus became the first swimmer in history to win both the 100 and 200 m freestyle events at two different editions of the World Championships (Budapest 2022 and Singapore 2025).
Popovici (20 years old, from CS Dinamo) also managed to set a new competition record and a new European record in the 100-metre freestyle. He was only 11/100 of the world record for the event (46 sec 40/100), set by China's Zhanle Pan at the 2024 Olympics, when Popovici won the bronze medal.
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