However, his father insisted on him taking swimming lessons in that sports school, 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 in 1990 on the initiative by the head coach of the USSR National Team Gleb Petrov.

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.

Popov, considered one of the most technically sound swimmers of all time, took just 31 strokes to set the world mark,[7] which would last nearly eight years.

Popov earned both a bachelor's and a master's degree in sports coaching from the Russian Academy.

[9][10] He appeared at the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics after being elected a member of the IOC, presenting flowers to volunteers.

The former governor of Rio de Janeiro, Sérgio Cabral, contended in court that he paid $2 million to Lamine Diack, the former president of the International Association of Athletics Federation, which it was known as at the time, in order to secure votes.

On 5 July 2019, Popov denied these allegations, citing that he did not take any money in return for his vote.