Raiffeisen Bank announces the signing of a 4-year partnership to support the Romanian athlete David Popovici. “The partnership is based on shared common values, along with sustained work to achieve the best results, the ambition to overcome challenges and the promotion of Romanian performance”, says a press release sent by the bank.
David is currently the fastest global swimmer, holding the senior world record in the 100m freestyle. From the position of double world champion and double European champion, he has just qualified for the Olympic Games in Paris, 2024.
“For over 25 years, Raiffeisen Bank has been an important actor in the national economy, a solid bank with results that honor us. We have been able to achieve these results thanks to our approach of making long-term, sustainable investments. For the Raiffeisen Bank team, performance is a sustained, systematic, step-by-step race. We are honored to be part of David Popovici’s gallery of supporters, to support him in his sporting journey and we invite you to join us!”, said Zdenek Romanek, President and CEO of Raiffeisen Bank Romania.
“I am happy with this partnership because it is one for performance. My motivation is success, stability, safety, shared values with the Raiffeisen team. It is a long-term partnership: I want to perform in sports in the long term, and return part of this success not only in the form of inspiration for other young people – I, for my part, being inspired by other Romanian performers – but also as a contribution to society, to communities.” said in his turn David Popovici.
The athlete wanted to make it clear that he is not interested in knowing what earnings he has from the sport at this time.
“I don’t know if you believe me, but it’s true, my father can testify, all the people who help me can testify. I don’t want to know how much money I make. I don’t want to know how much money I earn per month, I don’t want to know what bonuses I receive, what prizes I win from swimming, precisely because I don’t want it to influence me. I don’t know, once I know that maybe it would go to my head, maybe it would make me change in some way. That’s exactly why I choose not to know, but I have trusted people who deal with it and because I’ve recently become an adult and I’ve grown up, at some point I’ll have to deal with it too. But I take it step by step and try not to run away from this responsibility too much, because soon I will have to know and see my adult life.” David confessed. He added that he is currently studying for the Baccalaureate, the final high school exam in Romania.
David Popovici is a Romanian swimmer, world and European champion. In 2022 he became the youngest men’s 200m freestyle world champion and one of the youngest men’s world champions in swimming history. David holds the senior and junior world records in the 100m freestyle, as well as the junior world record in the 200m freestyle.