Mark Spitz
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Mark Andrew Spitz (born February 10, 1950, in Modesto, California) is a two-time American Olympic swimmer.
He holds the record for most gold medals won in a single Olympic Games (seven), which he set at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. He remains (as of 2008) the only Olympic athlete to both win a gold medal in every (individual) event he entered in a given year, and to set a new world record in each such event.
Between 1965 and 1972, Spitz won 9 Olympic gold medals, 1 silver, and 1 bronze; 5 Pan American golds; 31 National U.S. Amateur Athletic Union titles; and 8 U.S. National Collegiate Athletic Association Championships. During those years, he set 33 world records.[1]
His participation in the Munich games, swimming with a mustache, gained him a bit of notoriety as most competitors opt to swim without facial hair, often shaving their bodies completely.[1]
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[edit] Swimming career
When he was two years old, his family moved to Hawaii, where he learned to swim. At age six his family returned to Sacramento, California, and he began to compete at his local swim club. At age nine, he was training at Arden Hills Swim Club in Sacramento with Sherm Chavoor, the swimming coach who mentored Spitz and six other Olympic medal winners.
Spitz continued to show his tremendous talents by the early age of 10, holding 17 national age-group and one world record (it is said that Michael Phelps was the youngest to break a world record. "Phelps broke the world record in the 200 m butterfly to become, at 15 years and 9 months, the youngest man ever to set a swimming world record.") At 14, the family moved to Santa Clara so Spitz could train with George Haines of the Santa Clara Swim Club. At 16, he won the 100 meter butterfly at the National AAU Championships, the first of his 24 AAU titles.
Disappointed in his 1968 Olympic performance, Spitz entered Indiana University to train with legendary coach Doc Counsilman, who was also his coach in Mexico City. At Indiana from 1968-72, he was a pre-dental student and member of Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity. While at IU, Spitz won 8 individual NCAA titles. In 1971, he won the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States.Spitz also set a number of world records during the U.S. Olympic Swim Trials held in Chicago's Portage Park in 1972.
He was named World Swimmer of the Year in 1969, 1971 and 1972.
He was nicknamed by his team mates, "Mark the Shark!"
[edit] Pan American Games
In 1967, he established a record, winning five gold medals at the V Pan American Games in Winnipeg. Forty years later his record was surpassed by Brazilian swimmer Thiago Pereira at the XV Pan American Games held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, when he won six gold medals.
[edit] Olympics
Holder of 10 world records already, Spitz predicted brashly he would win 6 golds at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. However, he won only two team golds: the 4 x 100 meter freestyle, and the 4 x 200 meter freestyle relays. In addition, Spitz finished 2nd in the 100 m butterfly. In this event he was beaten by fellow American Doug Russell by 1/2 a second despite holding the world record and having beaten Russell in the previous 10 times they had swum against each other in that year.[2] Russell did briefly match Spitz's world record in late August of 1967, holding the world record equally with Spitz for 5 days before Spitz regained it solely on October 2 1967. As a result of being beaten by Russell, Spitz did not get to swim in the 100m Medley Relay which gave Russell his second Gold medal and the USA team another World Record swim . He also finished 3rd in the 100 m freestyle at the same games. At the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich (West Germany), Spitz was back to maintain his bid for the 6 gold medals. He did even more, winning 7 Olympic gold medals, a feat still unequaled by any other athlete in a single Olympiad. Further, Spitz set a new world record in each of the 7 events (the 100 m freestyle, 200 m freestyle, 100 m butterfly, 200 m butterfly, 4 x 100 m freestyle, 4 x 200 m freestyle and the 4 x 100 m medley).
Spitz's accomplishments at Munich were overshadowed by the Palestinian terrorism attack, known as the Munich Massacre, that claimed the lives of 11 Israeli athletes (Spitz had previously spent time in Israel competing in the Maccabiah Games). In the immediate aftermath Spitz, who is Jewish, left Munich. The hostage crisis had affected Spitz personally, as he had been a guest in the home of Israeli wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg (the first victim of the massacre) while visiting Israel, and had been friendly with many of the athletes and officials who had been killed.
[edit] Maccabiah Games
The 1965 Maccabiah Games was his first international competition. At the age of 15, in Tel Aviv Spitz won four gold medals and was named the most outstanding athlete.[3]
He returned to Israel in 1969, following the Mexico Olympics, to again compete in the Maccabiah. This time he won six gold medals.[4] He was also named outstanding athlete of the Games.[5]
In 1985 Spitz opened the games, lighting a torch along with three children of Israeli Olympians murdered at the Munich Olympics.[6]
In 2005, he was chosen to be the flag bearer for the U.S. delegation to the 17th Maccabiah Games.[7]
[edit] Retirement and attempted comeback
Still only aged 22, Spitz retired from swimming after the Munich Games. His management tried to get him into show business while his name was still hot. In 1973-4, Spitz appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and TV series such as The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour and Emergency! as paramedic Pete Barlow. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences considered hiring him as an Oscars host[citation needed] (despite the fact he hadn't made any films), and there was even talk Spitz might become the next James Bond[citation needed] (the role went to Roger Moore instead). But Spitz was clearly uncomfortable on camera, and he quickly ended his foray into show business.
Then, at age 41, Spitz attempted to make a comeback in an attempt to qualify for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, after film maker Bud Greenspan offered to pay him a million dollars if he succeeded in qualifying. Filmed by Greenspan's cameras, Spitz failed to beat the qualifying limit, despite the fact his times were nearly as good as (and in some cases better than) his medal-winning times 20 years earlier.[citation needed]. But the sport had moved on during the intervening years and Spitz was well out of it.
In 2006 he received critical praise for his narration of Freedom's Fury, a Hungarian documentary about the country's Olympic water polo team during the Revolution of 1956. The film was executive produced by Quentin Tarantino and Lucy Liu, and made its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival.
November 8, 2007 Amanda Beard made her first-ever appearance in a television commercial. Along with Beard and her own seven medals, the commercial features a cameo appearance by Spitz, winner of seven gold medals at the 1972 Olympic Games.
[edit] Miscellaneous
Spitz and his wife, Suzy (née Weiner), both Jewish, have been married since 1973, and have two sons, Matthew (b. 1981) and Justin (b. 1991)[citation needed].
Chemist E. H. Bronner maintained that Spitz was a prophet. He is mentioned in Bronner's fifth MORAL ABC which appears on each bottle of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap.
Whatever unites mankind is better than whatever divides us! Yet, if absolute-unselfish I am not for me, I'm nothing but classless raceless, starving masses, never free nor brave! Only if constructive-selfish I work hard perfecting first me, like Mark Spitz - Arctic owls - penguin - pilot - cat - swallow - beaver, bee can I teach the MORAL ABC's ALL-ONE-GOD-FAITH, that lightning-like unites the Human race! For we're ALL-ONE OR NONE! ALL-ONE! 'listen children eternal father eternally one!' EXCEPTIONS ETERNALLY? ABSOLUTE NONE![8]
Spitz has sued Dr. Bronner's over this reference.[9]
In 1999, Spitz ranked #33 on ESPN SportsCentury 50 Greatest Athletes, the only aquatic athlete to make the list.
[edit] See also
- List of Olympic medalists in swimming (men)
- List of swimmers
- Athletics at Indiana University
- Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame
- Aleksandr Dityatin
- Michael Phelps
[edit] References
- ^ International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
- ^ International Olympic Committee - Athletes
- ^ Mark Spitz Jewish Virtual Library
- ^ Mark Spitz - "Swimming Isn't Everything"
- ^ Great Jewish Men By Elinor Slater, Robert Slater
- ^ Maccabiah Games Jewish Virtual Library
- ^ United States Olympic Committy; Spitz, Mark
- ^ Dr Bronner's Magic Soaps
- ^ http://www.aolcdn.com/tmz_documents/0528_mark_spitz_wm.pdf
[edit] External links
- Official Website
- Spitz U.S. Olympic Team bio
- Mark Spitz ESPN Classic biography
- Mark Spitz at the Internet Movie Database
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Spitz, Mark Andrew |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | American swimmer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 10, 1950 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Modesto, California, United States |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
