Olympic champion Popov says goodbye to professional sport

MOSCOW, June 26 (RIA Novosti) - A great Russian swimmer, four-times Olympic champion Alexander Popov said goodbye to professional sport yesterday. The ceremony to say farewell to the swimmer took place in Moscow's Olimpiisky swimming pool on June 25.

Born in Sverdlovsk, Russia, on November 16, 1971, Alexander Popov (also spelt as Aleksandr Popov and in Russian: Александр Попов) would grow up to be one of the world's best swimmers. He began swimming at 8, and at that time, was afraid of the water. However, his father insisted on him taking swimming lessons, and in his own words, he has "been stuck there ever since". Popov started out as a backstroker but switched to freestyle when he joined Gennadi Touretski's squad. Since then, he has moved from Russia to Australia to be with his coach.

Popov won the men's 50m and 100m freestyle in the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, and repeated his victories in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, becoming the first man to do so since Johnny "Tarzan" Weissmuller. He presented Touretski with his 1996 Olympic gold medal from the 100m freestyle. "I have a title and I'm on the paper, but, you know, Gennadi hasn't got anything from Atlanta or from Barcelona," Popov said. "But I know how much this particular medal means for him, is worth for him."

One month after the Atlanta Olympics, he was stabbed in the abdomen with a knife during a dispute with three Moscow street vendors. The knife sliced his artery, grazed one of his kidneys and damaged the pleura, the membrane that encases the lungs. He had emergency surgery and spent three months in rehabilitation. He went on to the 1997 European Championships and defended his 50m and 100m freestyle titles. "My soul wasn't damaged, my brain wasn't damaged, only my body."

During the Sydney 2000 Olympics, Popov lost to Pieter van den Hoogenband by a mere fingertip, to come in second in the men's 100m freestyle. He finished 6th in the men's 50m freestyle, dashing his dream to be the first man to win 3 consecutive olympic gold medals in the men's 50m or the 100m freestyle events. However, Popov accepted his defeat with the grace of a true champion. "It's not the end of the world," said Popov. "I can't win everything, I have to share."

In the 2003 Barcelona World Championships, Popov once again made a clean sweep of the men's 50m and 100m freestyle events, citing that Barcelona would always be special to him, for it was there that for him, everything first began. He announced his participation in the 2004 Athen's Olympics. However, being the oldest compeititor at the pool, the gold medal eluded him, and he did not even manage to make it into the finals of both the men's 50m and 100m freestyle events.

Popov was elected a full member of the International Olympic Committee in December 1999. He also represents the athletes on the IOC Sport for All Commission and was elected directly as one of seven athletes to the IOC Athletes Commission by the athletes participating in the 1996 Olympics. He was re-elected to the Athletes Commission at the 2000 Games and is now Honorary Secretary. He was awarded the 1996 Russian Medal of Honour for contributions to sport. He was also named Russian Athlete of the Year and European Sports Press Union Athlete of the Year in 1996.

In June 2003, he confirmed that he was permanently leaving Australia in early 2004 to live in Solothurn, Switzerland. He said the move followed the offer of a business proposition in Switzerland, once he had retired from swimming. He plans to retain Touretski as a long-distance coach.

Popov has both a Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in Sports Coaching from the Russian Academy. He is currently married to a former Russian swimmer. He is also a spokesman for Omega watches. He is 2m tall and weighs 87kg, and is well-known for his kindness and friendliness, as well as his good looks.

Popov currently still holds the Olympic and World record for the men's 50m freestyle(21'64").