On June 16, 2000, Alexander Popov achieved one of the main successes in his life. On this day, he broke the world record in 50 meters freestyle. This achievement, set at the Russian Championship in Moscow's Olimpiyskiy, allowed him to finally claim the title of best sprinter swimmer in history.
By the beginning of the new millennium, Popov had already achieved everything that an athlete could dream of. He was the first and only one who first managed to win the 50 and 100 meter heats in one Olympics, and then defended both titles in the next. He had three victories at the World Championships, and Popov won the last one after a knife wound received during an attack in Moscow in 1996. Finally, for six years he remained a champion in swimming at 100 meters in a long pool. The rich collection of the “King of Water” lacked only one valuable exhibit.
Throughout the last decade of the 20th century, the world record at fifty dollars has remained the most anticipated event in the world of swimming. For more than ten years, he owned the American Tom Jaeger. On August 20, 1989, he improved Matt Biondi's record (22.14) by two hundredths of a second. And already the next spring, March 24, 1990, at the Nashville competition, he first became the first to swim out of 22 seconds, showing the time of 21.98 seconds, and then improved his own result by another 0.17 seconds. For an athlete from the United States, this was the sixth career record. Since then, the highest achievement at the shortest distance has not been updated. Not a single swimming record lasted so long.
Popov was already the world record holder at fifty dollars, but only in a short pool. On March 13, 1994, he sailed a distance of 21.50 seconds at the World Cup in Italy. This achievement lasted four years, until the British Mark Foster took off two “hundredths” from the result of the Russian. But swimmers have an ambiguous attitude to short water records. Many people deliberately avoid performing in a 25-meter pool, so Popov’s success could not be compared with Jeger’s “eternal” record.
Popov managed to swim out of 22 seconds in a long pool only once in his life - at the victorious Olympics in Barcelona. It was still hardly possible for anyone in the world to compete with him, but it did not work out for a long time to overcome the treasured milestone and all the more so. With age, the chances to beat the achievement of Dzheger began to melt - by the beginning of 2000, Popov was already 28 years old.
Nevertheless, in preparation for his third Olympics, Popov began to progress precisely at the “fifty dollars”. In May, he sailed for 22.23 seconds - this has not happened since the Atlanta Olympics. And this happened on the eve of the qualifying championship of Russia, to which Popov was to reach the peak of form. Even the coach Gennady Turetsky felt that his student was ready to break the world record, and allowed to take a chance.
All three 50-meter heats — qualifying, semi-finals and finals — were scheduled to take place on the same day, June 14th. From 22.70 seconds, he switched to 22.13 seconds.
In the final, one of the participants made a false start. In the second attempt, Popov’s result was still incredible - his stopwatch stopped at around 21.99 seconds.
It is believed that due to false start, sprinters are more careful to start a second time, losing half a second. It turned out that Popov really had to break the world record, if not for this accident. In order not to wait long for the next chance, he asked the organizers to give him the opportunity to swim again 50 meters on any free day so that the record could be officially counted. Such permission was obtained, and on June 16 a re-swim was scheduled.
On that day, Popov went on a record swim without a jumpsuit, made 31 strokes and touched the side in anticipation of the result. The numbers on the chronometer lit up 21.64 - Jager's ten-year achievement fell, Popov won him 0.17 seconds. The Russian became the owner of two world records at the same time in the fastest disciplines.
“In general, he did not expect that as many as six years will pass from one record to another. Surprisingly, in the course of the swim, everything turned out as I wanted. I controlled the situation completely. Not out of rhythm. I’m tired, of course - a short sprint has to be done exclusively on the strength of my hands, but on the whole I feel pretty decent, ”Popova quotes after the Sport Express swim.
The Russian record, like many others, lasted only until the era of wetsuits. On February 17, 2008, Australian Imon Sullivan sailed 50 meters in 21.56 seconds and beat Popov's achievement. The current record of the Brazilian Cesar Cielo Filo is 20.91 seconds and has been holding for more than ten years, since December 18, 2009.