Word: popov
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Some people get their brainstorms while singing in the shower. Boris Popov had his during a death-defying plunge in a crashing hang-glider. "I was about 500 ft. up over Lake Owasso," says the Minnesota businessman of the 1977 accident. A powerboat that was towing his craft over the water throttled up too fast and literally pulled Popov's gossamer wings apart. "I got all caught up in the material and was petrified. I had a lot of time to think on the way down, and I promised myself that if I survived, I would figure...
...when the bubbles clear, it is not The Star Spangled Banner playing over the Bernat Picornell Pool but the strains of another anthem. And the man who lays claim to being the new Johnny Weissmuller, the new Mark Spitz, the new Matt Biondi, is a fellow from Volgograd named Popov, winner of the 50-m free and the fastest swimmer of the XXVth Olympiad...
...strains of the Russian anthem faded, veterans Biondi with a silver medal and Jager with a bronze found themselves looking up at the 6-ft. 6-in., 192-lb. frame of Alexander Popov, a fresh-faced 20-year-old who was virtually unknown in swimming circles until last year. Popov's gold in the 50- m race followed his victory two days earlier in the 100-m freestyle, where Biondi holds the world record. At the postrace press conference, Popov was asked how it was possible to succeed amid the chaos of the former Soviet ( Union. "We were preparing...
...future in the pool is bright and his smile is winning, but Alexander Popov takes an austere, even bleak view of the world outside. The 100-m freestyle swimmer, who won the European championship last year, worries about Russia's future and takes an intensely frugal approach to life. "I look soberly on literally everything, even on girls. I am totally unromantic," he says...
That dourness seems to change as soon as Popov, 21, hits the water. "While I'm swimming, I sing songs in my mind," he says. His career is following an upbeat tune. An avid admirer of Mark Spitz, the Russian youth won the Soviet junior championship as a backstroker at 14. Since 1990, when his coach persuaded him to switch to freestyle, he has been nearly unbeatable. He has defeated his main rival, Matt Biondi, in their last six meetings. "At first I thought that he didn't take me seriously," says the younger swimmer. But Biondi takes him seriously...