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
One of the most difficult things for people who have been successful in sports is adapting to the daily world where you can't get an answer from someone until 5 o'clock tomorrow. There is always an excuse. Living 40 or 50 years like that doesn't get too exciting after a while
By making a comeback, I'm changing the attitude of people toward me. If I'd known that people would react so enthusiastically, I'd have done it years ago.
I walked away from the sport for 17 years, then started swimming again recently in a master's program.
There are times I might coach one or two workouts a year when the regular coach gets caught in traffic
What it is saying is that someone who was a world champion and who takes care of himself with a 17-year rest and applies the proper training techniques and perseverance could be successful.
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.
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.
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.
When I went to the Olympics, I had every intention of shaving the mustache off, but I realized I was getting so many comments about it - and everybody was talking about it - that I decided to keep it.
The memories of the Munich games for me are of triumph and tragedy.
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.