Despite missing the podium in the 100m freestyle, David Popovici won a silver medal in the 200m freestyle at the World Short Course Championships in Melbourne and the American press raved about the impact he made her in this sport.

David Popovich, a new honor from Swimming World magazine

After Swimming World Magazine named him America’s Swimmer of the Year, the prestigious swimming publication named David Popovich’s individual medley number one on its list of greatest achievements of 2022.

The Americans again used only the best words about the athlete, registered at the “Dynamo” CS in Bucharest.

“Although we had many elite performances to choose from, David Popovich’s high-profile performance was the obvious choice for number one on this list.

That’s because this Romanian teenager was just 17 years old when he broke the 100m freestyle world record. It belonged to the Brazilian Cesar Cielo (46.91) and happened in the era of polyurethane suits in 2009.

For 13 years, it has been threatened but not won, even with swimmers like Caleb Dressel and Kyle Chalmers at the forefront.

This was done by Popovich, who took the stage at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, where he did not win a medal. This year he won gold in the 100m and 200m freestyle at the World Championships in Budapest in June and returned to his best form at the European Championships in Rome in mid-August.

There, he swam in the semifinals in 46.98, just seven hundredths off Cielo’s record, before dropping to 46.86 a day later to set a new world record. Popovich does not outpace his competitors in the first lap of the pool, but his second lap speed is unmatched by any other swimmer in history.

Popovichi also impressed at the distance of 200 meters freestyle. This year he swam 1:42.97, becoming only the 3rd man in history to go under 1:43:00, after Paul Biederhamn and Michael Phelps.

No athlete has gone below 1:44.00 in a decade, and now Popovich is closing in on another legendary wetsuit-era record, Biederman’s 1:42.00.” – they wrote.

Ranking of the greatest achievements in swimming in 2022

1. David Popovichi – world record at the distance of 100 meters freestyle

2. Ariarn Titmus (Australia) – world record at the distance of 400 meters freestyle.

3. Thomas Ceccone (Italy) – world record at the distance of 100 meters on the backstroke

4. Kristof Milak (Hungary) – world record at the distance of 200 meters butterfly.

5. Zach Stubblety-Cook (Australia) – world record at the distance of 200 meters breaststroke.

6. Leon Marchand (France) – world champion in the mixed 400 meters

7. Summer McIntosh (Canada) – two-time world champion (recorded the 3rd result in history in the 400m individual medley after Katinka Hosszu and Ye Shiven and became the 3rd athlete to break 4 minutes in the 400m freestyle after Ledecky and by Titmus)

8. Cathy Ledecky (USA) – the first athlete in history to win 5 consecutive world championship titles in the same discipline – 800 meters freestyle

9. Gregorio Paltrinieri (Italy) – 1500m freestyle world champion, reaching the final with a time of 7th (recorded the second fastest time ever in the last event)

10. Torry Huske (USA) – 100 m butterfly world champion with a national record