David Popovici is targeting 45 seconds for 100m Freestyle!

[bry]

45 was unbelievable in the speedsuit era

The 100 free has gotten so fast in such a short period. I know there have been some changes in the stroke/turnover.

But the drops in such an event that was measured in hundredths not long ago is phenomenal.

It wasn’t that long ago that breaking 48 was a phenomenal achievement.

In fact only Hoogenband broke 48 before the speedsuit era.

There have only been a small handful of guys to break 48 without speedsuits.

And yes, speedsuits were the difference in breaking 48, save for maybe Cielo and Bernard.

45 is just hard to believe. But if anyone can it’s Popovici.

He has a lot of strength the gain.

Men gain in strength until their early 30s.

And Popovici has a pretty unimpressive start-could take 2-3 tenths of that with some work on start. And his underwaters could also be better.

With those two things he is probably just shy of a half second drop.

But with his strength gains…who knows?

Will that hurt his back half?

More muscle mass means more lactic acid buildup- and it’s not proportional. That is the lactic acid buildup with more muscle is greater lactic acid per unit of muscle.

I don’t know. I could see 46 low. But I wouldn’t bet against Popovici out either.

I do think its within reach for him.

I just don’t think people appreciate how unbelievably fast that is. I went 45 SCY and wasn’t exactly slow.

[mainichibenkyou]

I doubt he could ever go a 45.
That would require a 21.0 or faster 50, about a second faster than his current time.
He would have to bulk up considerably to go that fast, which would hurt his second 50.
The 100 freestyle is similar to the 400 meters in running.
We saw Van Niekirk beat Michael Johnson’s record but only by .15 seconds.
My guess is he could go 46.5 in the next few years.