Alexander Popov
Olympic 50 m and 100 m freestyle champion at two consecutive Games
Overview
Popov won both sprint titles at Barcelona 1992 and defended both at Atlanta 1996, a feat no other male sprinter matched in that era. Later in 1996 he was seriously wounded in a street stabbing in Moscow and returned to win silver at Sydney 2000. He trained with long, relaxed strokes emphasizing efficiency over pure power.
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