Seventeen-year-old David Popovici of Romania became the youngest swimmer to break the world swimming record in the men’s 100-meter 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.
“It has hurt but it’s always worth it and I feel fine right now. It felt great and it’s very special to break this record which was set here in 2009 by César Cielo.”
When Brazil’s César Cielo set the existing men’s 100m freestyle world record in 2009, ‘super suits’ were still legal.(Getty Images: Clive Rose)
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.
“David is a fantastic swimmer, I think the same crazy genius of the freestyle that I am in the butterfly. It’s great that his name will hit the headlines for long, long years.”
Romania’s David Popovici swam the fastest 100m freestyle in history, stopping the clock in 46.86 seconds.(AP: Andrew Medichini)
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 medalist in the 100m free.
Eighty-two per cent of people sampled in a study conducted by Victoria University have reported experiencing at least one form of interpersonal violence when participating in community sport as a child.
Key points:
Three-quarters of respondents said they had experienced psychological violence or neglect in children’s sport
Seventy-three per cent experienced violence from their peers, and 66 per cent said they had from a coach
Women experienced higher rates of sexual and psychological violence, as well as neglect
The survey, which is the most comprehensive of its kind in Australia, asked 886 adults whether they had experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence, as well as neglect, from either coaches, peers or parents during childhood.
Seventy-six per cent said they had experienced psychological violence or neglect, 66 per cent reported physical violence and 38 per cent reported sexual violence.
One in three respondents, meanwhile, said they had experienced all four forms of violence.
The respondents had participated in a large variety of sports, with nearly 70 represented.
Seventy per cent of respondents experienced physical and psychological violence from a peer. (Designed by The Infologist for Victoria University)
While such large numbers may come as a surprise to some, study co-author Mary Woessner said she was not shocked.
“From the literature, and knowing what’s happening internationally, I would say that’s right about what we were expecting,” Dr Woessner told the ABC.
“One of the first things you need to create change, positive change, is generate understanding that there’s a problem.
“We just want people to know it exists, so we can make evidence-based decisions to change it.”
Dr Woessner’s co-author, Aurélie Pankowiak, explained that the survey asked participants about explicit examples of violence they may have experienced in a sporting context.
Aurélie Pankowiak co-authored the study with Mary Woessner.(ABC News: Andie Noonan)
For neglect, for example, participants were asked if they had experienced being refused time off for medical injuries.
For psychological, participants were asked whether they had been insulted, threatened or humiliated (for example by being bullied, given an unwanted nickname violence or otherwise ostracised).
“We had very concrete examples of different types of violence, so we did not leave it up to the person’s interpretation of whether or not what they experienced was violent,” Dr Pankowiak said.
Candice Warner has ventured into the murky waters of the Commonwealth Games’ swimming “love triangle”, offering up some blunt criticism for Kyle Chalmers.
She revealed her surprise about how badly he handled the headlines after a “media frenzy” over his relationship with ex and Commonwealth Games golden girl Emma McKeon and her new boyfriend, pop star-turned fellow swimmer Cody Simpson.
Acknowledging “alpha male” Chalmers’ ego “would be burnt a little bit” by McKeon’s new relationship, Warner said she expected someone who had dealt with media scrutiny since 2016 — when he won the gold medal for the 100m freestyle at the Rio Olympics — to manage his interactions with the media far better.
As the curtain closed on another stellar Commonwealth Games swimming campaign from the Australian Dolphins, one of the stars of the team has revealed how Kyle Chalmers’s unwanted media attention and mental health struggles had rippled through the squad she describes as “a family.”
Key points:
Kyle Chalmers has been open about his mental health struggles throughout the Birmingham Games
Ariarne Titmus says intense media scrutiny has the potential to impact the whole team
The Dolphins won 65 medals, the best haul Australian swimmers have ever produced at the Commonwealth Games
“I think we all kind of feel part of it,” said Ariarne Titmus, moments after winning her fourth gold medal of the week, for the 400m Freestyle.
“Because we are all so close, we are such a close team, and I think that’s why we perform so well, because we have each others’ backs.
“I think it potentially can affect us emotionally because they’re our friends, they’re teammates. We’re like a family and we don’t like seeing people upset and put through durations.
“And we’ve come out here and done our best and done our country proud and I think the swimming does the talking. We’ve killed it this week and I hope that Australia is proud of our performance and we’ve done our absolute best for the country and we’re going to go home with some extra luggage.”
Kyle Chalmers said it took all his strength and courage to win his third gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in the men’s 100m freestyle.
It wasn’t his fastest swim, but he said it was “bigger than just me racing”.
“It’s very, very bittersweet. It’s been the most-challenging, probably 48 hours of my swimming career,” Chalmers said.
“And, as much as it’s nice to win, it’s probably just a big sense of relief, rather than the satisfaction that I thought I’d feel and want to feel after a performance like that.”
Chalmers has been the center of intense scrutiny over his personal life, and it came to a head at the Sandwell Aquatics Center a couple of nights ago, where he faced more questioning over unsourced rumors about rifts in the team after winning the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay .
The 24-year-old considered walking away, and admitted he barely slept ahead of the 100m freestyle heats.
But I have pushed on to send a message.
Gold medalist Kyle Chalmers sent a message to the media after weeks of intense scrutiny.(AP: Kirsty Wigglesworth)
“I’ve definitely had big battles with mental health over a long time, and it’s one of the most-challenging things that I’ve had to face and see my teammates face and family face,” he said.
“I think it’s important that people have the courage to stand up and speak about it.
“I’ve been around for a while and I need to create the conversation and try to help people going through similar things and just make it more normal.
Kyle Chalmers said it took all his strength and courage to win his third gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in the men’s 100m freestyle.
It wasn’t his fastest swim, but he said it was “bigger than just me racing”.
“It’s very, very bittersweet. It’s been the most-challenging, probably 48 hours of my swimming career,” Chalmers said.
“And, as much as it’s nice to win, it’s probably just a big sense of relief, rather than the satisfaction that I thought I’d feel and want to feel after a performance like that.”
Chalmers has been the center of intense scrutiny over his personal life, and it came to a head at the Sandwell Aquatics Center a couple of nights ago, where he faced more questioning over unsourced rumors about rifts in the team after winning the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay .
The 24-year-old considered walking away, and admitted he barely slept ahead of the 100m freestyle heats.
But I have pushed on to send a message.
Gold medalist Kyle Chalmers sent a message to the media after weeks of intense scrutiny.(AP: Kirsty Wigglesworth)
“I’ve definitely had big battles with mental health over a long time, and it’s one of the most-challenging things that I’ve had to face and see my teammates face and family face,” he said.
“I think it’s important that people have the courage to stand up and speak about it.
“I’ve been around for a while and I need to create the conversation and try to help people going through similar things and just make it more normal.
