EXCLUSIVE: Ageless Alex Popov is Fit and Hungry at 32

By Stephen J. Thomas

SOLOTHURN, Switzerland, November 17. RUSSIAN freestyle great Alexander Popov might have turned thirty-two yesterday but there is certainly no stopping the Tsar yet. Last weekend after only a week of ‘serious training’ under his belt after a long break back in Russia, he competed at a sprint meet in the French town of Rouen organized by his sponsors Arena to get the feel for racing again. Popov managed a very solid second place in the 50 free behind local sprint star Julien Sicot and a more surprising second in the 50 fly.

Popov was joined by his wife and two sons, aged six and three, along with representatives of several generations of Russian swimming to celebrate his birthday at a lunch in the small, historic Swiss town of Solothurn, where he has been based this year. Among the group were his coach, Gennadi Touretski, who has been with Popov since his late teens, and Touretski’s mentor, the 74-year-old Dr Alexey Krasikov, who was visiting with teenage backstroke star Stanislava Komarova to work with Touretski. Touretski continues to work as a consultant to Swiss Swimming, which allows him the freedom to work with Popov, and with other visiting swimmers.

Touretski told SwimInfo that Popov was in excellent shape given his time off and they had only just begun the training schedule to build through to Athens in August — and quite probably, the World Short Course Championships in the USA in October.

In response to a question about Popov’s retirement, Touretski simply gave the excellent analogy to making a good finish in a race: “If you aim to just reach the wall when you are swimming you will not do well. You must focus through the wall, he said.

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