Romanian swimmer David Popovici today became the Olympic champion in the 200m freestyle at the 2024 Games in Paris, beating Britain’s Matthew Richards and North American Luke Hobson, who took second and third place respectively.
Popovic, 19, who had already won the world and European titles in the 100m and 200m freestyle, won in 01:44:72 to take the gold medal, two hundredths behind Richards (1:44:74) and seven behind Hobson (1:44:79), with the final decided in the final metre.
This is the Romanian’s first medal at the Olympics in his second participation after he finished fourth in the 200m freestyle at Tokyo 2020 and seventh in the 100m.
Popovic will now try to take the top spot on the podium in the 100m freestyle in the French capital in the final scheduled for Wednesday, where he will compete against world record holder Pan Zhangle of China.