David Popovici talks NCAA vs ISL, Olympic performances

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feeling good i had only one training today in the water i've been back from monday and uh i'm getting into the rhythm you know because yeah i have to start back over now well so how long did you have off after tokyo i had a total of three weeks and so in the first week i came home then i went uh in holiday for about 10 days and then i spent the rest of it here with my friends and be great okay hey do me a favor just come a little bit closer so uh yeah

i can hear you hear you just a little bit better there we go perfect so the holiday itself you had this thing planned you went away with your friends to look like you're at the beach just enjoying life right yeah i had to disconnect a little because yeah it was a lot but it was fun but i had to disconnect i mean just to keep i don't know just to stay sane you know is this the first big kind of extended break you've had in a few years yeah i never [Music] stayed without swimming for

this period of time like three weeks i've had vacations of a maximum of two weeks 10 14 days three weeks but again it was different i never had the olympics i never had back-to-back competitions like that especially um junior europeans and then the olympics like it was different and the break had to be different as well was that difficult for you to kind of just turn off or was it overdue for you you felt like you really needed this i felt like i really needed it i mean i've been feeling it since i was in

tokyo but i couldn't really think about it because uh i had to uh to concentrate there you know yeah but i definitely felt it i mean i had to drag my uh peak form from rome onto tokyo and i managed to do it sort of that was the plan yeah that's something i wanted to talk to you about as well before we get into tokyo is certainly kind of the lead up to it and how you felt like it went what was the planning for that and all sorts of things but um just straight off

the bat there's been some talk about you competing in the isl swimming for the new york breakers did you sign with them are you doing this i will be doing yeah i'm now leaving in a few days like for the first stage but i will be leaving for the second and the third stage that if you will if we will qualify you know because it's not totally up to me and so if we will qualify i will uh compete in the second and third stage okay i'm not i'm not familiar with the stages so when

when exactly would you be leaving so and i hope i'm not wrong because i'm not really up to date with this but i think i would be living on um somewhere around 12 12th of november and then i think i'll be staying for about two three weeks in eindhoven for the semifinals that means the second stage and i think the finals are at the start of 2022 or i don't even i'm not really sure right yeah sure why did you decide to bypass stage one because uh stage one would begin um in very few times

and so i still needed to get back on track like from the holiday and everything because i started training only two days ago right sure yeah i think there's actually a few people like that right now but uh yeah i heard about caleb as well that he would do that too yeah yeah is i don't know much about your show course are you any good sure course it seems like the the length of your stroke and the way you swim is not really suited for short course that's a question i have as well but i

guess we live and we'll see because i don't know it will be a new experience i swam short course before of course but only in domestic competitions like only a romanian national short course championships you know so i don't really know but were you drafted into new york breakers or was it something you chose no i was dressed i was chosen from the pool of republicans or however it worked are you happy with the draft are you happy to be swimming for them yeah sure i would have been happy with literally any any team that

would pick me and uh because i wanted to participate i heard a lot from robert robert glinta we call him um i heard a lot about isl i heard a lot about how it is the experience you get the people you get to talk to and the races you get to swim and uh it got me really fired up right is your coach going to be accompanying you to the meets yeah yeah he will i don't think i would have really accepted it if you wouldn't have been right um my next question then is i

don't know how much thought or contact you've had with possibly swimming in america does this forfeit your chances to compete and swim in the ncaa i had a lot of contact a lot of universities contacted me even before this whole isl thing and i only found out that i probably probably couldn't do both like i don't know um a month ago or a couple months ago before rome you know so i was really stressed i just found out well maybe i couldn't do ncaa and also isl because still to that moment i mean up to

that moment ncaa was my main my main thing and so um i had to really think about it talk to lawyers talk to people who actually know the system and it still isn't really really clear because of all the new rules but it is entirely possible that i may never be able to compete in the ncaa but uh we'll talk about that later that's that's a whole conversation as well yeah sure uh can you give us a clue of some of the schools that you're talking to right now that you're interested in oh a lot

of them um [Music] i talked to nc stanford keal texas you name them but uh they're all very quality people and um yeah they have the results i mean you can argue with that and so that just proves they're good coaches good people and it's a good environment so in in this instance then it's definitely still a dream maybe to compete in the ncaa so and so and i'm inclined more to i know to be honest because since i found out that uh i probably couldn't do both i just really thought to myself david what's

up with all this ncaa stuff like is it really worth it for you and i had to really reconsider my options because i was facing the decision to either do that or um which i still don't know for sure but i had to think of that and i came to the almost conclusion that it's working what am i doing now my battery whatever i'm doing now it's working so how i'm working with my coach i am working with all my team how i get along with my family my friends the environment what i see next

to me what i have here is good for me and so um i think um a coach from the states i don't remember what in university he was from he emailed uh regarding this he emailed me something yeah we get that if it isn't if it ain't broken don't fix it and i think that really applies to the situation i find myself right yeah i mean especially three years to paris now it's not like it's uh four years it's a three year cycle i mean you're on the up and up um you're really honestly a

global superstar in swimming terms right now i mean for me personally no one has ever come on my podcast and just exploded i was with you for nine minutes and that thing just went berserk so i mean everybody thank you for that i appreciate it but uh now listen i got some questions here from from people i've kind of some friends of mine that uh once want some answers here are you strictly freestyle do you swim other strokes are you looking to branch out any other strokes any events or is it just free stuff fun

um funny thing when i was in tokyo i saw caleb i saw how he swam the 100th flight i was impressed of course like any other swimwear christa christophe milak as well and i uh more jokingly or not i went to him and i was uh you think we could sometimes do i mean managed to get to 49 and 100 fly like i'm just curious because you're the coach you know plan and he was like he sighed and you're gonna give me a lot of work and that was just it so it's still a question

but it's a flaw is definitely a possibility yeah i mean i i hate training fly it's hard of course like any other swim i would say but i like swimming it in competition because i'm kind of fast at it the freestyle work definitely helps because like i said i don't work a lot of butterfly at least not endurance i work technique we we actually work out all the strokes and we work out almost all the distances um up to the mind let's say the 15 meter hot 1500 meters yeah it's an actually it's an interesting

point you brought up um you know you you got to watch a lot of different swimming in tokyo as well who was a couple of people that you were impressed with in the way that they competed um not necessarily i mean not only in the way that i competed but brent hayden i met with him at the cafeteria and i went to him he commented before in one of my uh i mean some things post related to me so i knew he knew me so i went to him like what's up man you're a great

inspiration you're huge and he was like yeah thank you and then went on this with his way and five seconds later he came back wait you're the romanian guy right the fast kid yeah and the guy whoa let's take a picture i was like you want to take a picture no i want to take a picture and uh we battled in compliments you know and he was a really really nice guy and plus a legend i mean he was before and now he only grew that status in my eyes um some other swimmers caleb caleb

was extremely down to earth i mean at the 100 free before i mean at the um preliminaries i forgot the word uh we were in the same heat the last year i was on four no he was on four i was on six and he came to me and was like yo congrats i saw you something like that you have a better future i was impressed because he couldn't i mean if he wanted to he couldn't have said he couldn't forgive my english um if he wanted to he could have said nothing you know and

just concentrate on his race but he was just like a small gesture but for someone who grew up looking up to these people it's um it's an impulse you know yeah yeah two very good people brent hayden first class man i competed against him myself and uh i love the guy you're right with him um now well let's go back to just before tokyo before we kind of touch more on that um how was the planning going in to you know this this double peaking i mean you you swam really fast you know before tokyo

very very soon before tokyo and then you had to go to tokyo so how did you any and you actually swam faster in tokyo in your 200 freestyle so how were you able to in a very short time peek at this competition and then go on to tokyo and peak again so to sort of um build up this peak form we had to work from a long time ago that means i think and i hope i'm not wrong from january like from when the year started um from the first training we had to work why

we had a kind of a training camp at our pool like 80 kilometers a week and so it was very difficult and so we trained but we trained for rome because at that moment in january i i couldn't have known that i will qualify i mean i didn't know for sure and i had no guarantee of that and so i knew for sure i was qualified at the junior europeans so we trained for that we trained so that that my peak form will be achieved at rome and we kind of just thought that i mean

hope that i could qualify i know i could but like i said we had no good guarantee so i trained for rome a lot and i achieved my peak form there so objective completed but from rome i still i qualify for tokyo and so i had to kind of like i said drag that big farm onto tokyo and so i managed to do that in the 200 um i managed to do it through preliminary semi then final and but from then on i i felt tired like i'm not a robot just like uh kalashnikov said

in one of his interviews it happens and um my objective was completed i wanted to achieve an olympic final and so i did i did too and i even took fourth place um just three months before the olympics i wasn't even qualified in the 200 and so just managing to get fourth best in the world without being qualified two months ago before was just i don't know blew my mind well not only that you you only just missed the medal by uh what two one hundredths of a second you know uh i think let me

see the time here i had 144.68 and she was 144.66 uh i mean amazingly close to the podium uh incredible swim yeah that's the thing i say to myself if um let me just um turn the lights on sure on here all right because it's getting kind of dark outside yeah okay yeah perfect perfect there we go good yeah much better all right perfect and so uh what what did i want to say oh yeah i i said that to myself and i'm still saying this to myself now maybe if i saw him i like

to think i could have probably beat him because i was on one and he was an eight so there was no way for me to see him i barely saw dean scott who were um four and five i think yeah and so uh yeah i mean he was better than me i had a very very good race but still he was faster than me so i guess i just have to learn you know not be upset about it because yeah i mean it was a huge huge objective for me like we passed the object objective

a lot sure i mean you saw my best time in an olympic final not many people can say that and especially at your age so incredible but so talk to me about this race specifically what was going through your head in the ready room what was going through your head behind the blocks so a lot of people ask me what's my routine at the starting zone where you get called you said the name but i always forget it yeah like a home room or ready room call room yeah yeah i usually listen to music actually

with these headphones um i sometimes just stare at people and sometimes i just uh do some jumping jacks like i don't have a set routine um and but now i told you i listened to some music i stayed concentrated i hyped myself up and there was really just nothing going through my mind i like to think that whenever i'm in a very important moment in swimming like a final or a very important race i don't think about stuff anymore the stuff is done i just focus like the training is done there's nothing you can do

to it anymore the preparation is good and at the blocks um i have my lane like i'm not looking at other people and even if i'm looking i'm not actually even if i'm seeing i'm not actually looking i'm not processing that information it's just me a blank noise in my ears and uh and focus and the visualizing i've done before there is what about in a 200 it's very important to get that first 50 right where you don't over swim it you don't you don't under swim it where you you give too far too much

away so in that first 50 or maybe even right before you start what are you thinking there that helps you get on the correct pace that you want i think i wanted with my coach to go uh 24 5 i think um i don't know just that just comes naturally like the first 50 was never a struggle for me at least not in the 200 at the 100 i still have to get it better but in the 200 at least for now i did it just as when like i went out fast i came back

fast and then went all out that was the little strategy for it but we had the times written down um i did a personal best by a lot and we just stick to the planet and it worked just uh it's just a way to show how well our chemistry works mine and my coaches i mean our chemistry yeah did you feel that lane one was an advantage or disadvantage for you in that olympic final i guess it kind of was an advantage because uh in the 200 you don't feel any waves so the the lane

um like with the waves it doesn't really matter but because i was on one when i was breathing on my right side which i breathed on always on the 200 and 100 i was on the last last 50 and so i was breathing on my right and i could see almost the whole pool like i was seeing uh martin malutin the russian guy next to me i was seeing dean i was seeing scott i was seeing the korean guy but i wasn't seeing the brazilian guy because he was just a little bit too far away

and but it helped me because um in that moment it's just who is the hungriest will win there's nothing more to it like who is more determined and ready for it in the moment you know you mentioned the korean guy a lot has been made about him um in comparison to you a lot of people are comparing the two of you you think it's a fair comparison because maybe your age in the events you swim do you know much about him um not much apart from what we talked to and we didn't talk about a

lot but yeah we swim the same events we have almost the same times and he is almost as young as me is um he's getting out of yeah he's eating he's getting out of his juniors now i mean next year um so i think it's a fair comparison and i'm sure he'll be a great adversary in the future yeah it seems like you guys have got a lot of races yeah a lot of races ahead of you together uh he's a little bit shorter than you i think six one yeah i think so yeah but

he was cool he was we were at um we were in the column and you know like i said i was just staring at people i just wanted to see how they i don't know i was just looking around i wasn't quite thinking so i was staring around and i saw him and he was like i was pay yeah let's swim fast well you're only 0.4 off the gold medal were you surprised that tom dean won the gold medal or that wasn't a surprise for you um not quite a surprise i mean i knew he

was determined and um yeah i thought there was a flight um yeah i'm not really surprised that he won it he deserved it he's young as well what is he 19 20. am i wrong yeah i think he's i think he's about 20 yeah yeah so he's young as well i think he deserved it but uh i have a picture with him i mean one of our photographers took it i think and there's me and tom after we got out of the pull out of the final and i was congratulating him all the cameras were

on him and so i was next to him and there is it's a really nice shot i think i'll post it one day and i just like to think of it as a olympic champion and future olympic champion there we go i like that man what about your warm-up for the 200 can you talk me through specifically what you do for warming up for your 200 um you mean the warm-up in the pool like yeah what i do before yeah um i don't know it was quite simple i did a say a hundred meter freestyle

100 meters medley 200 uh sculling um just some underwaters a little bit then some progressive 50s and then some worm down i mean it's quite easy but those progressive 50s alongside with the sculling are really what get me going because um it's kind of a progression and you have to get activated i mean that's the science my coach has to think about you know i don't really stress about it because i just have to swim so for your 200 what is it about a 1200 1500 something like this one no i think even shorter no

oh really it's maximum six hundred meters i think that's it seven hundred yeah like i told you like two hundred 200 is calling some underwaters and four progressive 50s and then some 201 we keep it simple because we believe in this principle that that i'm already loaded like i have it in me and the training is done the visualization is done um because we work on that as well and i've gone through all the the nerves i just have to get my muscles going get activated and then put it all into perspective swimming what do

you mean by visualization what do you what do you do for visualization literally sit in a bed um lights off eyes closed door locked um i just like to know that no one can come like right when i'm in the that moment and uh i just think about the race like this is something phelps has talked a lot of has talked a lot of um something that my coach taught me from when i was little like taught us all of his kids it's just if you can manage to imagine the moment properly with all the

details um there's no way you can fail and can you still hear me yeah yeah sorry and so i just think of how the how the blocks will feel how will they sound how the floor be um just how my name will be heard in the arena how the crowd will cheer even though it was a very small crowd composed of only swimmers and coaches i still imagine the roaring crowd that the olympics would give me in a normal way but i kind of blew that but from every little detail because if you can manage

to do that you can swim your own race like no need to look at anyone else wow that's that's great detail and then it's usually a much more experienced athlete who has a grasp of that so to to have that at a young age is a huge advantage for you obviously it's working were there any surprises at all uh for at least the 200 freestyle i mean you've visualized this you've heard it you felt it you smelt it then you go out and execute were there any surprises i just knew i was going really fast

like on the first 50 and on the third one when i had um the people right next to me because when i was swimming on the i was swimming on my right side and so i was very close to the edge of the pool and so i'm seeing all the photographers i was seeing the crowd the americans they were a lot and i just thought of myself when i saw the photographers oh i know i'm going fast they're probably taking some pictures of me as well and i just remembered of the people at home watching

me who who woke up a lot of people who woke up at 4am to watch me and so that really pushed me and made me even hungrier like i was going fast but that gave me a boost you know so that was the that was what i was thinking there were no surprises i went in i did my race i felt very good and when i saw that i took fourth place i was like okay fourth place that's very good and then i looked at uh i saw the difference between me and the third one

i saw kitchen 100 and i said to myself uh okay maybe maybe an olympic medal was was maybe just too much and uh yeah i just thought of myself that next time will be gold at the olympics there's no there's no doubt about that so maybe a fourth place for now is just exactly what i needed well i think i i think i sent you a message that uh peter van hoogenbahn and his first uh olympics in 96 finished fourth in the 200 and then uh went on to to get victory at his next olympics

in the 200 so i i don't doubt that uh that the future looks very good for you too maybe history will be made again or at least tweeted yeah i agree now listen the hundred though so look it's hard to say it was a disappointing uh performance you you finished uh in the final seventh place i believe you just didn't swim your best time in that final you talked about fatigue was that something that you definitely felt leading into that final um like one thing i i felt fast like in the preliminaries the semis and

the final um the times said otherwise like compared to what i knew i could do but i just had to attribute something i mean because i felt fast i was kind of confused at first i asked my coach but what's happening i'm feeling really good and i only did a 48 8 or whatever i did in the preliminaries 47 8 sorry and he was like it's normal you he didn't want to tell me he didn't want to tell me then that i was tired so that not to influence me or anything but um after we

were all done he said to me like not to panic not to think of anything bad it's normal i was just started it was my first back-to-back competitions and uh i had to go through this so that next time i'll be stronger for this right but yeah they just there's a lot of mosquitoes here sorry that's why i'm turning my head around not going crazy i wanted to be on the balcony i feel better here okay was there a difference in the feeling before the race between the 200 and 100 in terms of the tension

anxiety in the call room or anything like that no i actually felt more prepared in 100 as well because i was kind of more confident in it knowing it was theoretically my best event or at least until then so i felt really good again i even in the water i felt really good but it was a new feeling i still was confused after i finished ok i finished almost last with this time weird because i i thought i went out fast and i came back very fast but time said otherwise then apparently it's kind of

normal i mean my coach taught me now everything about it did you feel the waves in the in this race in the final in olympic 100 meter funnel is big big waves hell yeah in the preliminaries i totally forgot about it like um we thought about it we said there will be ways for sure there will be ways like those are huge people um caleb miresi and everyone that was near maxine griset and um at the preliminaries they just forgot about them and they shocked me um when i first came out for the second 50

i was like these are waves um i wasn't really prepared for them because i forgot in the semis we went okay let's do a strategy try and stick to the the lane from where the waves are coming from like you know just like jason lisa did um yeah and she won that uh legendary really um and so i tried doing that and it was again a complete failure like i was hitting miresi he didn't even feel it like i was hey did you feel me hit you i hit you and the lane and everything it

was like i didn't feel it of course you didn't you're huge um and so i hear that it was a fail and then in the final we went okay he told me that my coach adrian you're doing your race swim on the middle and how you know it don't try and do any fancy strategies cause we really haven't worked them out perfectly yet so because i wasn't very prepared for it so i swam my race i tried and um avoided the waves as much as i could um and it was better than the semis for

sure but i still have to learn how to get past them or when i was learn how to make them and make everyone's lives harder yeah definitely uh you you want to do that make make the waves don't try and deal with them sir um is it still a struggle for you to get out at the at the top end speed you know like caleb caleb gets out real fast and and puts puts a body length on people and and you're feeling that wave if you're anywhere near him is it still difficult for you to

hit that first 50 speed um on the first 50 you don't feel the wave you feel the wave only i mean based often off of of my speed and his speed like i would feel the wave only at um before the turn and when i get out like those are the most important moments and um yeah he's a vo2 machine okay like he can get he can go very fast but unfortunately i mean fortunately for me he comes back slower like he manages to go out very fast because that's what he's best at um and

i mean it's a very good recipe the times are amazing 47-0 but i think that in the future if i manage to get and i will manage to get faster on the first 50 just a matter of time um 47-0 we have bold plans i'm not going i'm not going to go more into detail well i can imagine the bowl plants i mean you're already 47.3 there's anything beyond that is bald so it's quick but uh would you rather be if you had a choice would you rather be out in 22 or back in 23

not both yeah not for real sure definitely yeah i mean that's at least uh that's a thought you know that's something we've uh thought about a little like for now we we take little steps but those little steps will bring us one day to this is back in 23 a reality is is that a possibility that you know no one's done it no one's come back in 23 but is it is it real yeah yeah play that simple it is like uh i think kyle chalmers i mean for sure he has the the fastest second

split he has 24 1 i think he did in the olympics no um and i think i'm second or third if i know right excuse me if i'm wrong but that's what i think um so yeah when i heard that i was uh amongst the top three best like all-time second split i was like okay but that wasn't i can do better i can do a 23. like it's just um it's not arrogant if you can prove it you know sometimes in the future absolutely absolutely were you surprised that the world record wasn't broken in

this event particularly in the hundred you mean yeah um there was a lot of speculation like in the world of swimming that okay drizzle will beat it chalmers will beat it some lunatics were saying popovich will beat and i was like yeah okay thank you but let's just let's just focus on what's real at least for now let's dream bigger when i'm ready again you know um but it was just a gut feeling i didn't think it will be broken like there's no one um that's gotten i mean except caleb and uh kyle there was

the one who's gotten close to it like it's a very hard time scissors yellow yeah it was very fast that that's just it yeah not now soon well is this i mean you've just started back training the new season have you talked about future plans yet or is this something as the season goes you start to talk about um we're just starting to talk about plans like what competitions are next um how are we gonna treat uh gym sessions cryotherapy sessions when you're gonna talk to our machinist and we're just putting it on paper for

now we're not rushing um there's isl there's a world short course there's european short course um we have some interesting interesting statements and so we're just starting it out like taking it small steps because there's absolutely no rush yeah have you done an assessment with your coach on last season have you been able to sit and talk about the things that went well the things you want to improve has that happened um the things that went well well um i think we kind of talked that and went through that like on the way after rome

um he already told me what i've done good what i've done bad what i can improve what was perfect yeah um and in tokyo as well we had plenty of time when the competition ended to talk about things um and yeah then so we just enjoyed our um our holidays because we both needed them yeah yeah and now you're back back into it uh let me ask you a couple of other questions what's your favorite freestyle drill favorite freestyle drill okay so i think the most uh important one or at least for me and i

i know a lot of swimmers will relate to that um there's a variation of sculling so you know it's the normal sculling like you do like this i look like a need right now but i'm just trying to show it to people um you just start off from here and do it like this you know and then you come back so like this and then go back right i just think that's that's very important and it really helps me i do it a lot before my hundreds and two hundred um in events like me sorry

and my favorite drill i really don't know i i just like swimming uh the normal fist i'm simple do you train with the snorkel on very much no not really i mean i train but when are you kicking just because it's easier for me no yeah what about uh for just some just some basic times i mean do you do a hundred kick for time or 200 kick for tom or anything like that what's your best oh i suck at kicking i'm not good at kicking i'm not good at pulling like with a pool boy

or how's it called i have no idea how it's called in english the thing you put yeah the thing that floats boy yeah um i suck at them i don't even know my times but we're trying to improve that all the time like at every training and i want to improve that as well like when i combine them alongside with my technique efficiency and whatever else there is very fast freestyle comes out then but when i do it separately i i'm kind of bad at it but i just imagine i like to think about what

would happen if if i manage to perfect those because then when i'll put them all together i think a machine could come out without sounding too metaphorical what about this a lot of people love to hear the the best set you've ever done can you give us one set that is a favorite of yours um i thought you may ask me that i haven't thought of a favorite of mine but i will surely but i'll tell you a very hard set of hours um i don't know if my coach invented it i think he did

because he has a name for it and call is the he calls it a chernobyl chernobyl pyramid you know from ukraine and um it goes like this it's a hundred all out i mean not a lot but it's vo2 max right it's a hundred vo2 100 is 200 vo2 100 easy 300 view 200 easy and it goes like this till the 500 02 100 easy and then descending five times 100 vo2 um hundred easy two times two hundred two hundred easy and it descends up to the 100 which is an all-out hundred oh wow and

so that's a very hard one and uh the last time i did it um i think it will be the last time forever but the last time i did it um i had covet and i didn't know and so i had some best times i i did very good at it um and when i finished the training i was feeling really really bad like i didn't know i was sick i had covered and so i just associated the pain with uh the i associated the fever i had everything with the feeling of getting out of

that main set you know so i took a i took something for my head and then it went to it disappeared the fever and everything i was like yeah that was it i don't have anything i'm not sick and then later that day i had a fever again and everything and yeah i tested and i was positive but i'm just really proud of myself that i managed to do some very good times being sick wow he gave you the chernobyl set while you had covered that's uh that's pretty incredible man yeah i mean he didn't

know that i didn't know that but it was a very tough period with a few days back from that or a few days after that i had a 10 times 400 medley and oh not 10 days after that because i had coveted some days before that yeah 10 times 400 i am yeah it happens oh wow it's bad it's bad it hurts i'm sure yeah i mean i know phelps did a lot of these or at least i've read uh but it hurts but yeah but 400 i am and world record holder in the 400

i am this that's not you yeah exactly i don't i don't like the 400 and for the record i don't like it it's hard but i think i'll try and do it sometimes for fun and if i manage to do an okay time um we're just kind of letting all gates open uh with my um strokes strokes and distances because there's a lot of coaches and people in general in the world of swimming who says oh so you specialize now you're a 200 3700 fish seller that's what you want to do yeah but i mean

don't limit yourself to that right let's try some butterfly let's try some backstory which let's try some medley that's right 400 who knows what's your worst stroke breaststroke yeah how would you guess that yeah well you mentioned flying back and i know you're good at freeze if you don't mention breaststroke then you you don't love it i managed to do it in the 200 i am i had a i have a 201 i think in the 200 i am so it's a decent time which would have gotten probably fourth at the europeans i mean in

the 200 and in the 400 medley i managed to do it but by itself yeah what about this what about your favorite sprint set for the 100 um 400 so we have um we have a 50 from the blocks and we have to mimic the the first 50 of the 100. and then i think i have uh some rest like a length rest and then 150 all out and i have to mimic the second 50 or 100 and then again one leg one length rest and then one more second fifty like the second back half

of it and i think we did this four times and it's really hard but if i manage to go under [Music] i don't know under my best time on that i know i'm prepared for any meet that's coming because we usually do this set before um like in an important training period right in practice what could you what are you holding off the blocks and what are you holding from push i have no idea what that means yeah in this in this set so you said you do a 50 from the blocks for first 50

of the hundred what times are you going in that in the in the workout well wait a second my um disconnect but i'll hear you from this yeah that's okay yeah if you can hear me that's okay with me no problem so first 50 what are you going in that um i don't even know i haven't done it i think i go i think like in uh add it up i think i could go now if i'm training like a 46. how long yeah like overall like if i had a [Music] yeah yeah but we

we also do two hundreds like 200 decomposed um like a 50 from the blocks and then 350s uh from the water and then i even managed to go 141 0 at one point like 200 at the interval is uh one minute and so add it up 141. there you go 450s on a minute and add it up wow yeah you do that with a suit on no no i i usually never train with my suit sometimes very rarely but no this said i i've done it when i went this time i done it two times

first was 141.7 and the second one i really pushed myself by nearly vomiting but some sets are like this um and i went 141 0. but yeah i mean there's some things you have to be willing to do just it doesn't seem like there's many people in the world that think the the 200 freestyle world record can be broken apart from you i feel like you feel like this thing can be broken right yeah it is very hard i'm not saying that i personally think it's the most it's the hardest world record like out of

all the events um maybe phelps is 400 i am maybe comes near a bitter amongst bitter amounts 200. um i think it's doable yeah yeah i just think it's doable but again we need some time and we need and i said that before and i really like the expression um we need time uh patience and passion and we have we have them all me and my team do you have any training partners is there anyone in your squad that can hang with you in practice um i train with some people i don't train alone um

when i had to train for the olympics i trained a lot because there was no one swimming my events from my country so there are periods where i have to swim alone um and even when i have some training partners if we have some freestyle sets uh i have to go in the front like if i want to go fast there's um not anyone who can hang on to me i don't i'm hesitant because i don't want to sound arrogant i don't like saying that i'm fast but it's just the truth there's not really anyone

that hangs with me but um there are some sets some longer sets like 400s 800s where some colleagues like really push me and so i admired them for that who's your favorite training partner give them a little shout out okay i'll give him a shout out i didn't want to say his name earlier but i will um so vlad there's this guy vlad he's 2005 very slavic name i know he's 2005 and [Music] i don't know at rome he qualified in the final for the 800 i think i mean yeah i know that and in

training when we have some longer sets like i really he he's just near me without my shoulder and i just think that i have that capacity that robert think or how's his name pronounced has i think yeah i think i think sorry um robert think like if i wouldn't know how to sprint on the last hundred or the last fifty maybe he beat me so he's a fast guy and whenever i train with him uh yeah oh that's good all right vlad keep it up vlad come on man push him push him is this something

you feel like you may want more of in the future more training part is it necessary for you or are you okay not having that so i kind of found a lot of advantages with usually training all by myself because i don't usually train with him and when i train with him um there's it's the long sense that we really push ourselves with and when i don't train with him or someone like him i usually swim alone which is most of the time i hope i didn't repeat myself and i found some advantages like in

rome in rome i didn't really have any competition in the 100 or 200 and so i managed to go very fast um alone like i had no one to look in the front and to motivate me it's different swimming alone i'm sure you know that then from swimming with uh partners like in a meet in a race you're more motivated when there's more people and so being able to train alone and managing to do that well really helped me in the situation that rome was and will help me in the future if uh if it

happens again like if i participate somewhere and i don't really have any competition yeah what about this uh i had a lot of compliments from your first you know nine minutes that we spoke of how composed you were how intelligent thinking you are and how mature you are for your age how um how respectful you are of of you know your company your opponents all that sort of stuff so but is it frustrating for you at times to to know where you're you're going i mean are you in a rush or are you okay being

where you are but knowing where you're headed so like i said we took it we take it very simply and slowly we take very little steps we improve at every training with you and so just based off comments and everything everything that's ever been said nicely about me from the world of swimming and not only i thank you i thank all um but i usually tend not to read all of these because yeah there's no need for me to read like i'll leave it i leave them to to other people who want to read them

and so to answer your question properly i'm not in a rush i have all the time in the world and i i can't stress this enough excellent good good answer man what about um are you finished with high school or are you still going with that and if you do end up staying at home do you intend to study in university or anything um i have two more years of high school okay i have the 11th and 12th grade left i'll start in september that's how it is around here um so i'll have those and

then uh i'll have to think well i have to think for i mean from before when i finish high school but i'll have to think if i want to stay in romania i want to stay in europe or i want to go wherever but for now and what i think i mean what i inclined most to i think i'll stay here because like i said i have it i have it all for me yeah like yeah i'm sure some people some colleagues of mine and athletes in general would probably do better in the us or

australia or england or wherever um but for me and from my own personal experience and movement throughout my little career that has started so far and that will go on i'm good so far and i think i'll stick with it right yeah well two years is still a fair amount of time for to finish high school as well yeah so that's good um all right well i think that's about it do you have a favorite podcast that you listen to that's not swimming do you do you listen to anything like that no i i mean

i i do but i just turn them on 10 15 minutes go out i mean if they're not related to swimming which i know a lot of and like to hear about but um i usually just turn them on and i get very bored like even if it's a very interesting subject which i'm passionate about if it's not really swimming i can't really um relate to it and i just get kind of bored i like podcasts i like the idea the idea in general and uh i'm sure some people would get bored of me talking

as well whether it be swimming or whatever else but i want to go on podcasts they're interesting and it's not just an interview with basic questions and curious it is it's it's a discussion you know yeah yeah well i've i've enjoyed this in in terms of your stature back home has it changed for you are you are you a superstar back home now do you do people recognize you walking down the street or anything like that i took two words today um one to the gym and one from camp to come back from the gym

and they both recognize me um it's it's fun i mean i enjoy it some people just stare on the street like somewhere i know this guy where do i know him from somewhere i know this guy but i don't want to get talking to him with him and some are just like straight up applauding in the middle of the street and i appreciate all of them and if you ever see me on the street or wherever just say hi just no no wave there we go that's a good one man well get used to it

you're going to have a lot more applauding in the in the few years coming up so yeah it comes with it yeah well um one other thing i just wanted to talk about i'm wearing this uh kobe bryant kind of mamba mentality and i've heard that your mental strength is is very good and obviously you've got composure do you work on any type of mental training no i just go with the flow like if you're not considering visualization and type of mental training which is which it actually is if we're being honest but apart from

that i don't think there's anything i do in particular i just it's how how was how i was born i was educated educated the people i have around me the things i've learned from my coach and my coaches dryland and everything um and yeah there are some personalities i get some of my um not really expressions but mental states from and kobe is one of them like when i was at rome i saw a video of him i didn't know it before then he won an important game or something like that i don't really know

a lot about nba story and he won an important game and he was at an interview and the interviewer was um you just won by how come aren't you happy you don't look satisfied what's up with it i'm sure you know it the interview it's famous it's iconic yeah how come you're unhappy job's not done jeff's not finished why would i be happy and i i really related to that uh after rome because i really exploded in the world of swimming and mass media from home and news and everything because romania isn't such a big

country you know and uh i really exploded and i just had to think to myself that i have to stay low not like i said in rome when we had the 10 minute interview as well not get lost in the attention and keep my head on uh on my shoulders you know yeah yeah i yeah yeah i admire kobe awesome well listen man i've appreciated and for any other nba uh enthusiastics i also like larry bird oh larry burt okay celtics fan as well yeah larry's pretty good um but like i said man i really

appreciate the time and energy for this uh thank you again um i loved it i just love getting to know you i think you're a star now but you're certainly gonna be a superstar of the future so um keep doing what you're doing man and if you ever need anything from my end feel free to ask but uh we'll we'll keep following you okay sure yeah it was my pleasure thank you thanks david all right take care man bye bye