Mark Spitz
Mark Spitz
Mark Andrew Spitzis an American former competition swimmer, nine-time Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in seven events. He won seven gold medals at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, an achievement surpassed only by Michael Phelps, who won eight golds at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Spitz set new world records in all seven events in which he competed in 1972, an achievement that still stands. Since the year 1900, no other swimmer has gained so great a...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionSwimmer
Date of Birth10 February 1950
CityModesto, CA
CountryUnited States of America
I have a pool at my home that is 12.5 m long, so that if I swim eight laps, I can look at the time and say, that's my time for 100 m.
All things being equal, if we could simulate the same scenario, he has a lot more difficult task. He's elected to swim six individual events, as opposed to what I elected to do, which was four.
He gave me an opportunity to swim against the best swimmer of his day in the lane next to me, ... Don Schollander. He said, 'Keep up with him,' which I did. Then he taught me how to beat him, which I did. He was a great teacher. He knew what he was doing, and he instilled a tremendous amount of confidence in those around him.
I walked away from the sport for 17 years, then started swimming again recently in a master's program.
Swimming isn't everything, winning is.
Well my thoughts on American swimming are that our prospects look favorable, but we may not have as strong a showing in the gold medal count as in previous Olympics. But I am not coaching
The pool is terrible, but that doesn't have much to do with my record swims. That's all mental attitude.
It has nothing to do with swimming. That happens to be my sport. I'm trying to see how far I can go
I'm trying to do the best I can. I'm not concerned with tomorrow, but with what goes on today.
Did I take it all in on the awards stand? The only time I would have done that was my last event, because I was always thinking about the next one.
To be recognized as great is the culmination of a career, not a specific event. So we will have to wait and see, for Ian Thorpe.
New generation, I guess. The important thing is that we're getting the museum back on its feet.
It really changed how we do things in sports. Certainly, nothing happened to preplan or expect what was going to happen that day, as opposed to today, when extreme logistics go into planning.
If you fail to prepare, you're prepared to fail.