Precocious Popovici Fit To Make A Porpoise Blush At School Of Rădulescu Thinking
I press David on the meaning of 'sacrifice'. On his third go, he nails it: “What are you willing to do that others aren’t? This includes living a completely different lifestyle in terms of nutrition, sleeping, partying ...I might like to party ... then I humble myself back to my urges.”
Rome 2022 European Championships: When David Popovici was 10, coach Adrian Rădulescu, then 25, invited his team of Romanian tadpoles to have some competitive fun: the game would be simple, a matter of all lining up, swimming 25m: last home sits out; repeat until there's only one boy standing.
Young David is the smallest and skinniest of the tadpoles and, as a photo shared with former gymnast and L'Equipe gym and swim writer Celine Nony shows, he looks as if he's strayed from the set of Mowgli as he poses next to a special guest and medal giver, gym legend Nadia Comaneci.
About the third fastest of the string of swimmers stretching across the pool as the game begins, Popovici has not only taken on board the basic instruction, he has extrapolated, calculated and plotted a tactical course that could deliver gold, against the odds.
Rădulescu explains:
"Two boys were better than him, we started the game. Each time, David finished second to last. In front, they wanted to prove that they were good; they got tired. In the final, the last one had no more energy; he was so tired, David won. He already had the intelligence and the talent." - David Popovici
