SPITZ, Mark Andrew

(b. 10 February 1950 in Modesto, California), swimmer who was the first athlete to win seven gold medals in a single Olympic Games, setting world records in all seven events.

The oldest of three children of Arnold Spitz, a steel executive, and Lenore Spitz, a homemaker, Spitz had been a "water baby" since age two when his father taught him to swim. After his father was transferred from Modesto to Honolulu, Hawaii, Spitz and his mother went to Waikiki Beach every day, and he would hurl himself into the ocean. The family moved to Sacramento, California, when Spitz was eight, and he received his first formal swimming instruction at the local Young Men's Christian Association. By age nine Spitz was being tutored by the noted swimming coach Sherman Chavoor at the Arden Hills Swim Club in Carmichael, California, and working out for an hour or more every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On Saturdays he had double workouts. At age ten Spitz held seventeen national age-group records and practiced ninety minutes a day, seven days a week.

Basic to Spitz's success as a swimmer was his parents' commitment to making their son a champion. Arnold Spitz stressed the importance of winning, telling his son, "Swimming isn't everything, winning is." Both parents pushed and sacrificed so that their son would have the best chance to win. Spitz's physique also contributed to his success. He was slim and had extraordinarily large, scoop-shaped palms that could push tremendous amounts of water. His knees flexed forward, giving him a thrust that went up to twelve inches deeper in the water than that of his competitors. This flexibility gave him an abnormally long stroke in the butterfly, the most difficult stroke in swimming. He could swim the length of a twenty-five-yard pool with only thirteen strokes; most swimmers require fifteen or sixteen. Taking advantage of Spitz's leg movements and kicking action, Chavoor worked with the swimmer, particularly on his butterfly and freestyle strokes.

When Spitz was fourteen, his father told him that he had reached a peak and could either stay in Sacramento and forget about competitive swimming or go to Santa Clara, California, to be coached by George Haines. The family moved to Walnut Creek, California, in order for Spitz to work with Haines. Spitz and his mother had to get up at 5 a.m. to drive to the 6:30 A. M. practices, which were held forty miles away in Santa Clara. His father commuted 100 miles each day to work. Haines was the coach of the Olympic champion Don Schollander, and Spitz credited Haines with polishing his strokes and techniques, saying, "He gave me my foundation as a swimmer." Spitz did his part, swimming seven miles a day, two and a half hours in the morning and two hours in the evening.

Spitz showed the effects of Haines's coaching by qualifying for the 1964 national Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) championship competition. In August 1965 at the Maccabiah Games in Tel Aviv, Israel, he won four gold medals, three for individual events. In 1966 he won his first national AAU championship in what was to become his best event, the 100-meter butterfly. For Spitz 1967 was a record-breaking year. In June he set the first of his world records, in the 400-meter freestyle. The next month at the Santa Clara International Invitational, he set or tied five U.S. records, and that summer at the Pan-American Games in Winnipeg, Canada, he won five gold medals and set two more world records. September saw another world record in the 110-yard butterfly at a meet in London, England, and in October Spitz set two more world records in Berlin, Germany, in the 100-meter and 200-meter butterfly.

By early 1968 Spitz had become the media's darling, replacing Schollander as the dominant figure in U.S. swimming, and the pressure was building toward the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico. Spitz qualified at the trials to swim in three individual events and three relays. Haines, the coach of the 1968 Olympic team, indicated that Spitz could win as many as six gold medals. Spitz, increasingly sure of himself because of his recent victories and imbued with his father's drive for him to be a winner, intimated that he would win six golds. However, Spitz failed to win any individual gold medals in Mexico. Haines thought Spitz choked from the pressure. Others blamed it on a cold that prevented Spitz from practicing at the team's high-altitude camp. Some said it was the attitude of his teammates who reportedly cheered for opposing swimmers. Although he did not dominate his three individual events, Spitz did win two gold medals in the relays, a silver in the 100-meter butterfly, and a bronze in the 100-meter freestyle. He came in dead last in the finals of the 200-meter butterfly, an event in which he held the world record.

Spitz graduated from Santa Clara High School in June 1968, but delayed entering college because of the Olympics. In January 1969 he enrolled as a predental student at Indiana University, a school noted for its championship swim team and the swimming coach James E. ("Doc") Counsilman. Spitz had a history of being a loner and uncooperative, but Counsilman made sure that members of the Indiana team judged Spitz on his behavior, not his reputation. Spitz's teammates gave him a chance, and Counsilman provided much-needed emotional support. Spitz fit in and eventually was elected as the team co-captain. Indiana was a powerhouse in swimming, and in March 1969 Spitz played a major role in securing the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championship. He won three events, two in U.S. record time. For Spitz, it was like a comeback. In July he won three events at the Santa Clara International Invitational, tying records in each. Later in the month he won six gold medals at the Maccabiah Games.

Spitz continued to win and set records in the 1970s. In 1971 he set seven world and two U.S. records and won four national and two collegiate championships. In August 1971 at the AAU championships he won four events, setting two world records. This feat reestablished Spitz as "the cynosure of American swimming," according to William F. Reed in a September 1971 Sports Illustrated article. Once again Spitz was seen as a major contender for gold medals at the upcoming Olympics.

Spitz's accomplishments were recognized when he received the Sullivan Award as the outstanding amateur athlete of the year. In March 1972 he led Indiana to its fifth consecutive NCAA swimming title. At the Olympic trials in August, he set a world record in the 200-meter butterfly and qualified for participation in four individual events and three relay races. The specter of his failure at the 1968 Olympics was raised, but Spitz's former coach Sherm Chavoor, who now coached the women's Olympic team, stated that Spitz was physically stronger and emotionally more mature.

At six feet tall and weighing 170 pounds, Spitz was in shape. Resembling the actor Omar Sharif, he looked good. Unlike other swimmers who shaved their heads for competitions, Spitz kept his hair and his mustache for good luck. In Munich, Germany, Spitz was more careful with the press and comfortable with his teammates than he had been in Mexico City. His performance at the 1972 Olympics made history. Spitz's first event was the 200-meter butterfly; he knocked 2.6 seconds off his own world record to win the gold medal. Later that night he earned another gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle relay, swimming anchor. The next night he won the 200-meter freestyle. Two days later he won the 100-meter butterfly and earned a gold in the 800-meter freestyle relay. He made history in the 100-meter freestyle, becoming the first modern Olympic athlete to win six gold medals. Then he won a seventh in the 400-meter medley relay, swimming the butterfly. Unfortunately, Spitz could not stay in Munich to savor his victories. Just hours after his final race, Palestinian terrorists kidnapped and murdered members of the Israeli Olympic team. Spitz, who is Jewish, was flown home.

Spitz retired from competitive swimming immediately following the 1972 Olympics. After fourteen years of effort, he was ready to try something different. He graduated from Indiana with a B.S. in 1972 and was accepted to dental school, but he put school on hold and signed with the William Morris Agency, which guided him into a number of lucrative product endorsements. The handsome athlete was highly marketable, and a poster of Spitz wearing nothing but his swimsuit, mustache, and seven gold Olympic medals was second in all-time popularity to the Betty Grable pinup of World War II. Over a two-year period, Spitz made more than $7 million. He married Susan Weiner, a college student and part-time model, on 6 May 1973; they had two sons. Spitz owned a surf-wear business and was involved in real estate. He wrote the Mark Spitz Complete Book of Swimming (1976), with Alan LeMond, and Seven Golds: Mark Spitz ' Own Story: The Growing Up of a Gold Medal Swimmer (1981). Spitz was named the World Swimmer of the Year in 1969, 1971, and 1972.

In 1990 Spitz decided to train for the 1992 Olympics for the 100-meter butterfly, but did not qualify for the team. However, he continued to work out with the masters swim team at the University of California at Los Angeles. Spitz told Sports Illustrated in August 1997, "I squeak, rattle, and roll," but, "I enjoy the camaraderie."

Spitz was one of the greatest swimmers of all time. In his competitive career he set thirty-two world records and, in two Olympics, he won nine gold medals, one silver, and one bronze. He suffered the defeat and humiliation of the Mexico City Olympics and worked for the next four years to redeem himself. His victories in Munich became part of Olympic legend.

A principle source of information is Spitz's autobiography, Seven Golds: Mark Spitz ' Own Story: The Growing Up of a Gold Medal Swimmer (1981). See also the essay in Bill Libby, Stars of the Olympics (1975). Helpful articles include "Water Baby to Beat," Time (12 Apr. 1968), for background on his life and physical strengths; "Kicking Up a Storm," Newsweek (16 Sept. 1968), for Coach Haines's comments; "Growing Up to the Legend," Time (25 July 1969), for reflections about the Mexico City Olympics. A lengthy article with good background is William F. Reed, "'Swimming Isn't Everything, Winning Is,'" Sports Illustrated (6 Mar. 1970). For information on the Munich Olympics, see Jerry Kirshenbaum, "Mexico to Munich: Mark Spitz and the Quest for Gold," Sports Illustrated (4 Sept. 1972); and the cover story, "Spitz uber Alles in Deutschland," Time (11 Sept. 1972). More recent articles are Kenny Moore, "Bionic Man: Olympic Champion Mark Spitz Plans Comeback at 39," Sports Illustrated (23 Oct. 1989), and Susan Reed, "Superswimmer Mark Spitz, 39, Aims for the '92 Olympics," People Weekly (15 Jan. 1990).

Marcia B. Dinneenm