David Popovici and Pan Zhanle Now Hold 9 of the 10 ...Middle East

By Braden Keith on SwimSwam

2025 LEN U23 European Championships

H/T to Tencor for the inspiration for this article.

On Saturday in Samorin, Romanian David Popovici swam a new best time of 46.71, which is the #2 performance in the history of the event.

The result is building anticipation for an explosive head-to-head showdown in Singapore between Popovici and China’s Pan Zhanle. Both swimmers are only 20 years old, setting up as much as a decade of battles between the two.

In spite of their relatively-young age, the two now hold 9 of the 12 fastest performances in history in an event where no other swim in the top 50 performances was done by a swimmer as young as they are.

Top 15 Performances in History – Men’s 100 LCM Freestyles

Popovici is currently 7,591 days old. In his most recent entry on the list, the World Record swim from August, Pan was a few days shy of his 20th birthday, or 7,306 days old.

While there are a few other 20 year olds on the list, none were as young as Pan or Popovici currently are. Australian James Magnussen was 7,644 days old when he swam the #22 time in history (47.10). American Chris Guiliano was 7,664 days old when he swam the #42 time in history (47.25).

The next-highest ranked swimmers who were younger than Pan and Popovici is a tie: Russian Kliment Kolesnikov was 7,574 days old when he swam 47.31 in history in 2021, and American Jack Alexy was 7,494 days old when he swam 47.31 in 2023. That ties them as the #53 performances in history.

While the men’s 10o free isn’t exactly an event dominated by veterans, most elite swimmers go their best times at ages 21 and 22. The graph below shows the age distribution of the current top 51 men’s performers in history.

That means that Pan and Popovici are, based on historical standards, coming into their prime.

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