And if that world record is impossible, and if it is beyond the reach of the human being, and if it will remain in the books for centuries. Plastic swimsuits and their effects. That invention that between 2008 and 2009 revolutionized swimming remains in history as an indelible stain. Not even the greatest talents in history have managed to reduce the time that the German Paul Biedermanna second-string swimmer, scored in the 200-meter freestyle dressed in top-down polyurethane.
Michael Phelps, the legend, spent his whole life training, and training, and training to break the barrier of one minute and 44 seconds in such a mythical distance and when he did, Biedermann and his suit appeared to set a record forever: 1:42:00 . That day, on July 28, 2009, at the World Cup in Rome, the German himself admitted that his success had a trick -his previous best time was 1:46-, that he would like to beat Phelps “without needing a swimsuit” and that it was necessary to return “to real swimming”, but there his record continues. Only a marvel in a state of grace could surpass it.
Y David Popovich he thought this was his moment. This Tuesday, at the Fukuoka World Cup, he stood before the very high wall that Biedermann built, looked up, took a run, jumped into the heavens of history… and crashed against the stone. It was violent. It was nasty. It was a failure. The wonder, currently the fastest man on the planet, fell to the bottom in search of the 200-meter record and was left without history, without gold and even without a podium. In the last moments the British surpassed him Matthew Richards y Tom Dean and the south korean Sunwoo Hwang to leave him in fourth position with a time (1:44:90) slower than that recorded in the semifinals.
A simple analysis of his career explains the disappointment. In the first length, Popovici was not only faster than Biedermann, he was faster than any other swimmer in history (23.74 seconds) and then paid off. Upon completing 100 meters, he was still at the world record pace (50.18), but at 150 meters he was already behind (01:16:78) and in the last length he suffered like never before in his life. His final set (28.12) was the slowest of all the finishers, possibly his slowest set since childhood.
“Nobody likes to lose like that, but I’m not angry. I’ve done three really good lengths and I couldn’t take it anymore. I’ve given everything I could. That’s the sport,” declared a relaxed Popovici. He is 18 years old. He will try again. Already after the Tokyo 2020 Games, when he was just a teenager, he declared on the podcast ‘Inside With Brett Hawke’ that Biedermann’s record was “the most difficult of all”, but it was not impossible. “I will need time, passion and patience”, he commented then and, with those three ingredients, he could achieve it.