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David Popovici is a Romanian swimmer who has taken the sport by storm since last year's World Championships. He is a versatile swimmer when it comes to pool length as he performs seamlessly across two different professional pool sizes, namely, the 25-meter short course and the 50-meter long course pools.
While everyone around the world loves the occasional swim and some may be passionate about the sport, professional swimmers are known to have a certain physique that enables them to be successful at the sport. One of the variables that can predict a successful professional swimmer is height.
Popovici stands at 1.9 meters tall, which translates to 6 feet 2 inches slightly shorter than the average height of a male swimmer of 1.93 meters.
Popovici vs Other Swimmers: Height
Basketball is probably the only other sport that relies on height more than swimming as it remains one of the most important factors affecting the performance of a professional swimmer. Compared to the average swimmer from 1908 to 1968, Popovici is taller by almost seven centimeters.
However, since then, the average height has almost increased by 10 centimeters, making David Popovici slightly shorter than average. The average height in the sport of swimming has just increased over time and it seems like the trend is here to stay. Male Olympic swimming gold medalist in Tokyo, 2021 averaged 6'3, while 6’2 was the average at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Here's how Popovici's height compares to some of the most successful swimmers of all time and prominent swimmers today:
- David Popovici- 1.92 meters
- Mark Spits- 1.83 meters
- Michael Phelps- 1.93 meters
- Ian Thorpe- 1.96 meters
- Ryan Lochte- 1.88 meters
- Caeleb Dressel- 1.91 meters
- Adam Peaty- 1.91 meters
- Ryan Murphy- 1.91 meters
The Swimming Physique
One may ask themselves why height is such an important factor in swimming. This question can be answered by looking at the science behind the sport.
All four strokes: freestyle, butterfly, backstroke, and breaststroke rely on the physical characteristics of the swimmer. The taller swimmer usually has longer limbs, hands and feet which all contribute to a faster swim.
A longer wingspan contributes to a longer stroke which pulls more water from underneath and boosts the swimmer's speed. A longer body moves smoothly through the water and has considerably less drag allowing the swimmer to keep the speed for longer.
The feet of a swimmer act as fins, therefore, longer feet give a tall swimmer a better kick.
Therefore, when it comes to swimming, it is important to keep in mind that some people are genetically more advantaged to perform better in the sport. For example, although Phelps was not the tallest swimmer, his wingspan was longer than his body and stood at a whopping 6 feet 7 inches!
David Popovici is just 18 years old, and biologically speaking, men can have growth spurts up to 20 or 22! So, he may be packing a few more centimeters in the future!
David Popovici's career so far
After a massively successful run at the Junior Championships in his younger years and in 2022, Popovici went into the 2022 Long Course World Championships as a prospect. However, by the time he was done, he managed to win two gold medals in the 100 and 200 freestyle.
The same year, at the Short Course Worlds in Melbourne, he won a silver medal in the 200 freestyle behind South korean Hwang Sun-woo.
