The name Alexander Popov, Russian Sprint Tsar, is gone from the world record list but the career of one of the all-time greats of swimming and his achievements with coach Gennadi Touretski will not fade from memory.

Alexander Vladimirovich Popov is the only man in history to win the Olympic 50 and 100m freestyle titles at two successive Games and in 1996 joined Johnny 'Tarzan' Weissmuller (1924, 28) in the elite club of those who retained the 100m crown.

His 13-year international career (1991-2004) is studded with a stunning 45 jewels: at Olympic Games, four gold and five silvers; at World Championships, six gold, four silvers and one bronze; at European Championships, a record 20 gold, three silver and two bronze, between 1991 and 2003.

Popov was born in Sverdlovsk and began swimming aged 8 to overcome a fear of water. He preferred backstroke but Touretski turned him over and created the fastest freestyler ever seen (until Sullivan). His international debut was sensational: at the European Championships in Athens, 1991 -when Krisztina Egerszegi (HUN) set a world record in the 200m backstroke that would last until the same weekend that Popov lost the last of his l/c world records - the Russian claimed the 100m freestyle crown in 49.18sec, the first of 10 continental crowns in sprint events.

In Barcelona, 1992, Popov the pretender stopped the clock at 49.02sec in the 100m to win the Olympic crown by 0.41sec ahead of Gustavo Borges (BRA), with a stunned defending champion Matt Biondi (USA) back in 5th. Two days later, Popov became the first man in Olympic waters to race inside 22sec over 50m, his 21.91 ending the reign the supreme sprinters of their age, Biondi (2nd, 22.09) and teammate Tom Jager (3rd, 22.30).

In January 1993, Popov followed Touretski to a base at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra. At Monte Carlo in June 1994, Biondi's crown passed in full, when Popov reduced the world record over 100m from 48.42 to 48.21. Later that year, at the worlds in Rome, won both sprint events, holding off a new American threat, Gary Hall Jr. He did so again at the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996, his 48.74 win 0.07sec up on Hall and the 50m win 0.13sec ahead of the American, in 22.13.

Years later, Popov said: 'The main reason I looked at the clock was to confirm the feeling that I had won. Whether I won or lost, I always felt the same way. In the crucial final moments I was able to release a special kind of concentration and energy, which drove me forwards. I was born with it.'

He gave one of his golds to Tourestski, saying: 'I have a title and I'm on the result sheet, but Gennadi didn't get anything from Atlanta, nor from Barcelona. I know how much this particular medal means for him, what it's worth to him.'

In Moscow 30 days later, Popov was stabbed in the stomach in a tussle with a watermelon seller. Emergency surgery was followed by three months in rehabilitation. The incident changed his life: Popov was baptised in an orthodox church shortly after the stabbing. He recovered well enough to defend the 50 m and 100 m freestyle European titles at Seville in 1997 and said: 'My soul wasn't damaged, my brain wasn't damaged, only my body.'

At Perth 1998, he retained the 100m crown but lost the 50m to Bill Pilczuk (USA), now a coach with Britain. He would know more defeat the year after: at the 1999 European Championships, Pieter Van den Hoogenband got passed him but Popov's tale was far from over. In June 2000, he took Jager's 21.81 down to 21.64, defeated the Dutchman at the European championships over 50 and 100m. In Sydney 2000, training partner Michael Klim's 48.18 took out Popov's world record at the start of an Aussie relay that came home with Thorpe ending an American tradition and unbeaten record in the 4x100m freestyle. Then in the solo 100m, Van den Hoogenband clocked the first sub 48sec effort in semis and reigned supreme in the final, though Popov's silver in 48.69sec was the fastest of all his Olympic appearances.

In 2003, Popov was deemed the old man of sprinting but he won the 100m title in the fastest victory of his career, his 48.42 leaving him 0.26sec ahead of Van den Hoogenband. he also won the 50m for the last time in his long career. In Athens 2004, Popov failed to make it past qualifying rounds. He could have been a multi-millionaire had he raced for Australia. But he said: 'I made my reputation as a Russian swimmer, and I plan to remain a Russian swimmer.'

The record is dead. Long live Tsar Alex, a shining tribute to the work of Touretski.