Popovici The Pioneer Of The Euro 100-200 Double Treble

Slower with each passing edition, and yet faster three times than anyone else has ever swum in European Championship waters; Popovici's history book fattens to make room for a double-treble, the 1st in European 100-200 free history

by Craig Lord

published August 14, 2026

Pieter Van den Hoogenband, the Eindhoven Express, clocked 1:44.89 for the 2002 European title in between Olympic 100m victories and 200m gold and then silver at the 2000 and 2004 Games - and that time remained the championship record all the way to 2021, when 0.1sec was shaved off it by Martin Malyutin.

Then along came a teen called David Popovici, and a year after fourth place at the delayed Tokyo 2020ne Olympics, he arrived in Rome and leap-frogged the 1:43s to set a World Junior, Championship and Romanian record of 1:42.97.

And there the mark has stayed ever since, surviving two more Popovici victories, in 2024 (1:43.13) and here in Paris this evening in 2026 (1:44.15), two years after he became his country's first male Olympic champion in the pool here in the same city.

Slower with each passing edition, and yet faster three times than anyone else has ever swum in European Championship waters. Steadier the clock, and yet his stature grows, and the history book fattens to make room for a double-treble, the very first in European swimming history in the 100 and 200m freestyle. On Wednesday, he claimed the 100m freestyle title for a third time, and today repeated the feat over 200m.

The 100m holds a different pattern, slippage a matter of 0.02, gain a score of 0.32sec: 46.86 WR, 2022; 46.88, 2024 on his way to silver behind Pan Zhanle's otherworldly 46.40 WR in a 2m-deep tank in which everyone else swam significantly slower; and 46.56 ER here in a 3m Paris tank on Wednesday:

Lithuania’s Tomas Navikonis (1:44.55) and Great Britain’s James Guy (1:44.87) claimed the minor spoils in career best times:

Guy's prize also marked the return of the Great Britain relay king to the European 200m podium for the first time in a decade, since London 2016, the year after he claimed the World title at 19 years of age.

He's 30 now, a married man - and still motoring, finishing ahead of the 2008-born Christian Giefing, an Austrian who at 18 is around the age the British ace was when he, too, made his way into senior waters. Guy's still shifting it, and defying as he goes, the Commonwealth commentator who suggested he would "never do a 1:44".

Well, he has, twice this week, for example: once as a relay split of 1:44.01 to help Britain to gold in the 4x200m free; and then today, as a wet-fish-of-a-slap in the face of naysayers who suggest he's, well, over the hill.

When you meet Guy in the mixed zone, the hill's a flat plain of rich harvest: he's beaming and flowing with words of wisdom for young and old alike. You're left with a sense of swimming being all the richer for its evolution into a sport in which mums and dads and others intending to stick around in the fast lane into their Thirties are changing the narrative in a very healthy way.

In the wash and fray, Popovici pressed the pace with an opening 24.01 split. Half-way, it was 50.53; then 1:17.36, his last length a 26.79, topped by Navikonis's 26.37 out on the wing in 1 but leaving his challenge a touch too late for the big prize Popovici never seemed likely to lose - a feature of his Stoic approach to the process with coach Adrian Radulescu:

Guy, meanwhile, arrived with a career best of 1:45.04. So, there you have it:

Membership of the sub-1:45 club at the age of 30, the faithless frippery of a "can't do it" to the left and a "too old" to the right, alchemising with the steady, heady ambition of Great Britons who burn for a place in the 4x200 brotherhood. The tank may ebb and flow, but the fuel keeps the eternal flame alive.

Guy's bronze follows joint silver for England in the 200m with Welshman, training partner and 4x200 GB brother Matt Richards at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow two weeks ago behind Aussie outside smoker Kai Taylor:

Coached by Ryan Livingstone at the Manchester Performance Centre, Guy said:

“I’m really happy with that. I think coming into the meet, it was just like, what did you do wrong at Commonwealths? Like, what can you change and what can you fix into there? It’s very rare you get to go again after a major into another major. And being in peak condition. So it was just kind of changing tactically what I could have done better in Commies, and it worked really well. And yeah, personal best time as well, which is great.”

Popovici's turn of pace is impressive, of course, but Guy knew that the longer he stuck to the Romanian, the faster the time would be, the greater the chance of stepping onto the podium once more:

“I looked over and I was like, he isn’t actually going anywhere until the last like 15, 20 metres. It’s just where I am right now, the training we’re doing, the model that we have, I think it’s only going to go up from here. And it’s a great sign because I know what we've done in the training pool, I know what we can do to get faster. And the thing is, you don't want to be going too quick too early. Like, at the end of the day, it's the Olympic year that matters.

"That's when you want to be firing on all cylinders. There's no point going crazy fast times now and then not doing it when it matters the most. But yeah, that's the plan. It's always been trying to build into the cycle, but if I can go best time now in this condition on the second meet, you know, maybe if I could have done a third, might have gone even faster. So yeah, it's a really exciting time. I'm just swimming free. I know I'm in good shape."

Whispering Words Of Wisdom To The Next Wave

A bronze to add to his gold ... a decade after first making the 200 free podium at London 2016 Europeans ... Team shot: Golden 4x200 bros on the top step - l-r Matt Richards, Jack McMillan, James Guy and Duncan Scott - with Leon Marchand, of France, to their left, and Cornelius Jahn, of Germany, to their right

Guy is not a boastful man, so you invite him to boast about his longevity, his roll as an elder of tribe GB swim and inspiration and mentor to those who follow, he won't go there. What you get is the opposite of Uriah Heep:

"It's definitely just kind of being myself. I'm enjoying swimming a lot more. Like, I remember sharing [room] with Adam [Ramsay-Peaty], I'm sharing with Duncan [Scott] here, and like, we're men now. We're married men [Duncan's not yet...]. Adam's having a baby [Holly will actually deliver the treasure]. Like [compared to] where we were 10 years ago, our lives are different now.

Worth noting: James Guy is the founder member of the 30-something club of sub 1:45sec men in the 200m freestyle. The oldest 1:44 before him was ... Duncan Scott, who achieved the feat twice at 27 years of age. Before that ... Sun Yang*, 26. Karma is king - & the ghosts of Rio 2016 and Gwangju 2019 are kindly souls, perhaps ...

"And the way I look at the sport is you don't have to be 100% serious all the time. You can joke around the room. You don't have to be locked in 24/7. It's just when you need to be firing, you need to be on the ball. And that comes with experience and age. But when I see the young lads coming through about how they look at things and, 'oh, it wasn't a good swim ... I wanted to go a PB'. Like, that's just how young lads are, how they look at it. And that's being in a club environment. And I think we've all been through that system, through that kind of age of you want to PB all the time - and it's just not going to happen. And that just comes with experience.

"But I think for the young lads coming through, especially for the 4x200, it's getting them to [cope with the] pressure, leading up the final. Can you do it? And can you get a best time? And not folding with, you know, Popovici beside you, or Léon Marchand beside you. Can you hold your own? In that race. And if you can do that at that age now, it's a good sign going forward. So it's just trying to teach them experience, especially I think myself, Tom Dean, Duncan, Adam, it's just passing on knowledge to the young ones coming through, even the young girls as well.

"Like I remember Amalie Smith at the Commonwealth Games: she was doing the 400IM and she was being really quiet. And I said to her, you're not nervous, are you? She looked at me, it was just like this white face. I went, 'what are you nervous for? You've got nothing to lose ... just go out there and race and have some fun'. When you have that perspective of 'just go and do your race plan; don't be putting pressure on yourself; you're only swimming; just do your race plan and give it everything in the back 25', it just puts your focus somewhere else rather than trying to think about the outcome."

Guy's outcome was very fine indeed this day, as it's been on many others - and doubtless will be again. Throw it forward: Popovici for the 2032 crown, still motoring and challenging the latest David without the ball and chain of Goliath.for a mindset that fails to follow the blue-sky approach of Michael Phelps, who in 2016 singled out Guy, Scott, Peaty and Co at his swan song press conference at Rio 2016 as a generation to keep an eye on because, it seemed to him, they reminded him of his own frameless seascape: "No limits!"