Update: we’ve included a mixed free relay leadoff that was previously excluded.
At this weekend’s Romanian National Championships, 100 free World Record holder David Popovici swam a 47.61 to secure his spot at the Paris Olympic Games.
Relative to his World Record swim of 46.86, that swim seems fairly pedestrian, but of course in the grander scheme of swimming, no 47.61 is ‘pedestrian.’ Only 95 swims in history have ever been faster than that, including 14 of his own swims.
Among the many stories that have been told about David Popovici, perhaps the biggest game-changing narrative is how pedestrian he has made 47-seconds (or better) in the 100 free seem.
sub-48 seconds 100 meter frees throughout history:
At only 18 years old, Popovici has already been faster than 48.00 in 20 different swims. Only one swimmer, American Caeleb Dressel, has done so more times.
Dressel, 26, has been under 48 seconds in 24 different swims. He didn’t go under 48 seconds for the first time until the 2016 Olympic Games, when he was already a week shy of his 20th birthday.
That Popovici has done so this many times at such a young age is also noteworthy. In history, only 40 swims done by 18 & unders have been under 48-seconds in the 100 free, and Popovici is responsible for almost half of those.
The most sub-48 second swims in history have been done, by far, by 22-year olds, with 82. 21-year-olds are next with 42, followed by 23-year-olds (38) and 24-year-olds (30). If we use that as a surrogate for peaking in male sprinters, that means that Popovici has roughly twice, again, his elite international career so far before he even hits peak-47-second-age, and then another two-plus careers before he moves out of the 47-second-prime age.
That leaves open the possibility for some wild projections about what he could do to the 100 free history books – akin to what Michael Phelps did in the 400 IM, Katie Ledecky did in the 800 free, and Adam Peaty did in the 100 breast.
Every World Record breaker is a game-changer, almost by definition, but some of those record breakers change the game in more dramatic ways than others. Over the weekend, Popovici made some overtures about wanting to try distance frees and show off his versatility in other strokes, but if none of that disrupts his run in the 100 free, he is going to reprogram the conversation about this event.
But if we’re honest, maybe he already has.
Disclaimer: Data is probably not perfect. The lists below were ompiled via Nuoto Mondiale, plus some manual updates.
Swimmers Who Have Been Sub-48.00 in the 100 LCM Free, Ranked By Number of Sub-48 Swims
| Rank | Name | # of Sub-48.00 Swims |
| 1 | Dressel, Caeleb R. | 24 |
| 2 | Popovici, David | 20 |
| 3 | Magnussen, James | 18 |
| 3 | Miressi, Alessandro | 18 |
| 5 | Chalmers, Kyle | 17 |
| 6 | Grinev, Vladislav | 14 |
| 7 | Cielo Filho, Cesar | 13 |
| 7 | Bernard, Alain | 13 |
| 7 | McEvoy, Cameron | 13 |
| 7 | Adrian, Nathan G. | 13 |
| 11 | Kolesnikov, Kliment | 10 |
| 11 | Hayden, Brent | 10 |
| 13 | Grousset, Maxime | 9 |
| 14 | Nystrand, Stefan | 7 |
| 14 | Minakov, Andrei | 7 |
| 14 | Morozov, Vladimir | 7 |
| 17 | Sullivan, Eamon | 6 |
| 17 | van den Hoogenband, Pieter | 6 |
| 17 | Nemeth, Nandor | 6 |
| 20 | Lezak, Jason E. | 5 |
| 20 | Ning, Zetao | 5 |
| 22 | Bousquet, Fred | 4 |
| 22 | Held, Ryan J. | 4 |
| 22 | Liendo Edwards, Joshua | 4 |
| 22 | HWANG, Sunwoo | 4 |
| 22 | Chierighini, Marcelo | 4 |
| 22 | Apple, Zachary | 4 |
| 22 | Ferns, Lyndon | 4 |
| 22 | Scott, Duncan | 4 |
| 30 | Walters, David W. | 3 |
| 30 | Phelps, Michael F. | 3 |
| 30 | Grechin, Andrey | 3 |
| 30 | BURRAS, Lewis Edward | 3 |
| 30 | Leveaux, Amaury | 3 |
| 30 | Condorelli, Santo Y. | 3 |
| 36 | Milak, Kristof | 2 |
| 36 | Rooney, Maxime P. | 2 |
| 36 | Metella, Mehdy | 2 |
| 36 | Pan, Zhanle | 2 |
| 36 | Gilot, Fabien | 2 |
| 36 | Meynard, William | 2 |
| 36 | Weber-Gale, Garrett | 2 |
| 36 | DEAN, Thomas | 2 |
| 36 | Nakamura, Katsumi | 2 |
| 36 | Pieroni, Blake | 2 |
| 36 | Lagunov, Evgeny | 2 |
| 36 | Barna, Andrej | 2 |
| 36 | Manaudou, Florent | 2 |
| 49 | Roberts, James | 1 |
| 49 | Ceccon, Thomas | 1 |
| 49 | Richards, Matthew | 1 |
| 49 | Oliveira, Nicolas | 1 |
| 49 | Timmers, Pieter | 1 |
| 49 | Feigen, James E. | 1 |
| 49 | Santos, Guilherme C. | 1 |
| 49 | Agnel, Yannick | 1 |
| 49 | Matsumoto, Katsuhiro | 1 |
| 49 | Targett, Matt | 1 |
| 49 | Verschuren, Sebastiaan | 1 |
| 49 | Jackson, Tate N. | 1 |
| 49 | Wang, Haoyu | 1 |
| 49 | Curry, Brooks | 1 |
| 49 | Miroslaw, Rafael | 1 |
| 49 | Spajari, Pedro | 1 |
| 49 | Dotto, Luca | 1 |
| 49 | Zazzeri, Lorenzo | 1 |
| 49 | Stravius, Jeremy | 1 |
| 49 | Cartwright, Jack | 1 |
| 49 | Ribiero, Diogo | 1 |
| 49 | Santos, Gabriel S. | 1 |
Sub-48 Swim Frequency, By Age
| Age | # of Sub-48.00 Swims at that age | |
| 1 | 22 | 82 |
| 2 | 21 | 42 |
| 3 | 23 | 38 |
| 4 | 24 | 30 |
| 5 | 25 | 28 |
| 6 | 20 | 24 |
| 7 | 17 | 19 |
| 8 | 19 | 17 |
| 9 | 27 | 13 |
| 10 | 26 | 11 |
| 10 | 28 | 11 |
| 12 | 18 | 9 |
| 13 | 16 | 3 |
| 13 | 32 | 3 |
| 13 | 30 | 3 |
| 13 | 29 | 3 |
| 17 | 33 | 2 |
| 18 | 37 | 1 |
Sub-48 Second Swims, By Year
| Year | # of Sub-48.00 Swims |
| 2021 | 58 |
| 2022 | 57 |
| 2009 | 48 |
| 2019 | 42 |
| 2008 | 31 |
| 2016 | 20 |
| 2017 | 17 |
| 2013 | 13 |
| 2012 | 12 |
| 2014 | 11 |
| 2023 | 7 |
| 2015 | 6 |
| 2011 | 5 |
| 2018 | 5 |
| 2020 | 2 |
| 2002 | 2 |
| 2000 | 1 |
| 2007 | 1 |
| 2010 | 1 |
Eddie is retiring. Maybe. Some time soon
Magnussen was a different level wow
Yup. IMO Magnussen was the first swimmer to make 47’s pedestrian. Only problem was, he couldn’t drop down much faster when it counted most.
As I recall, Magnussen casually swam 47s in small local meets in-season.
Looking forward to reading, in 12 months, a similar article: “is David Popovici making a 46-second 100 meter free swim seem..pedestrian”?
It’s interesting to think about what this list would like if only sub 47.50 were considered. Various names, like Nathan Adrian, would disappear, and many other names at the top would end up with only one or a few.
dressel – 11
popovici – 10
cielo – 6
chalmers – 6
bernard – 5
kolesnikov – 4
sullivan – 3
bousquet – 2
held – 2
miressi – 2
magnussen – 2
mcevoy – 1
hayden – 1
walters – 1
nystrand – 1
grinev – 1
milak – 1
2008 – 5
2009 – 14
2011 – 1
2012 – 1
2016 – 1
2017 – 3
2019 – 11
2021 – 12
2022 – 11
I was too lazy to dig myself, so thanks! This one really shows that 2021-2022 really is the fastest group at the top historically.
I’m looking forward to seeing whether — or not — Popovici swims well with big dudes like Dressel, Chalmers, etc. in the pool and with high stakes on the line (e.g., Olympic gold).
I’m looking forward to seeing whether — or not — big dudes like Dressel, Chalmers, etc swim well with the teen WR holder in the pool and with high stakes on the line (e.g., Olympic gold).
Unfortunately, we didn’t get that last year when Dressel chickened out 🐓
What is the peak age in the 400freestyle also 22-24yrs? What do you think his ceiling is in the 400? It seems like he hasn’t seriously trained for it but no idea really.
Hello?
I’m predicting popovici goes a 46.80 in the 100 free before September, I don’t know if it will be at World champs or a different meet. Probably will be in the summer though. If he swims the 400 free again he could go 3:45.49 (before September as well).
That graphic was really fun to watch