Every sport has the habit of producing brand-new prodigies every day. These athletes pop out of relative obscurity and shock the world at a very young age. Football has Kylian Mbappe, while basketball has Victor Wembanyama. Swimming‘s future for a long time now has been about David Popovici. The 19-year-old has long been considered the future of swimming. This would have never been possible without the support of his parents. They identified Popovici’s talent at a very young age and have done everything possible to make his dream come true.

The Romanian athlete recently won the first gold medal for his country in the 200-meter freestyle event at the ongoing Paris Olympics. While Germany’s Luka Martens led the pack for most of the race, he dropped his speed in the final 50 meters. That’s when Popovici, who was right behind him for most of the race, passed him. Despite stiff competition from Great Britain’s Matthew Richards and the USA’s Luke Hobson, Popovici was the first to cross the line with a time of 1:44.72.

This was vindication for his first Olympic appearance in Tokyo. There, he missed the bronze medal by a whisker in the 100-meter freestyle. Since then, he has only proved his prowess by winning gold medals in the 2022 World Championships, the European Junior Championships, and now the Paris Olympics. This success was not achieved by him solely through his talent.