Romanian teenager David Popovici breaks 13-year-old world record for men’s 100m freestyle at European titles

Seventeen-year-old David Popovici of Romania became the youngest swimmer to break the world swimming record in the men’s 100-metre freestyle on Saturday, beating the mark set more than 13 years ago in the same pool.

Popovici touched in 46.86 seconds at the European championships to top the time of 46.91 set by Brazil’s César Cielo at the 2009 world championships, which also were held at Rome’s historic Foro Italico.

Cielo established his record on July 30, 2009, at the last major international meet to allow rubberised suits. It stood longer than any record in the event’s history, going back to 1905.

Now, it belongs to one of the sport’s budding stars.

“There was no rush and I had to be extremely patient about the world record,” Popovici said.

Cielo still holds the record in the 50 free, which is among eight men’s long-course standards that remain from the rubber-suit era. Five of those were set at those supercharged 2009 worlds.

Popovici went out in 22.74 and set the record by going 24.12 on the return lap to easily beat Hungarian butterfly specialist Kristóf Milák by 0.61. Italy’s Alessandro Miressi claimed the bronze in 47.63.

“This was a brilliant race, a joy to swim next to David,” Milák said.

Popovici’s emergence sets up a potentially huge showdown at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where American star Caeleb Dressel — winner of five gold medals at last summer’s Tokyo Games — will come in as the reigning gold medallist in the 100m free.