When was mark spitz in the olympics

Then, prior to his sixth race — the meter freestyle — Spitz acted as though he might not participate for fear of risking his streak of gold medals.

It was a memorable time, especially considering that four years prior — the Mexico City Olympic Games — Spitz had predicted he might win as many as six gold medals.

He came home with two relay golds, a silver and a bronze — still a significant haul but hardly what Mark the Shark had hoped for. His second Olympic run proved much more fruitful. Sierra Madre Street View map.

Olympic Marks are used under license from the U. Friend's Email Address. Your Name. Your Email Address. Send Email. Hall of Fame. Mark Spitz. February 10, The 'fly turned out to be my first race in Munich and I made sure that wasn't ever going to happen again. They called me a failure and that got to me.

So, a bad experience can inspire somebody to become very successful. Spitz competes at the World Swimming Championships. A little misdirection doesn't hurt My Russian rivals at Munich had never seen me swim in person and they were gracious enough to give me a lane during one of their practice sessions.

I knew they were taking pictures of me, so I started doing some stupid stroke that had nothing to do with anything. They asked if I always swam like that and I said "yeah. Then they asked if my mustache slowed me down. I'd been planning to shave it off that night, but I found myself saying that it actually deflected the water away from my mouth and I could get my face a lot lower and my body more streamlined.

It probably did slow me down by a few hundredths of a second, but I was winning by seconds -- so it didn't matter. Anyway, after that, I decided to keep the mustache and it ended up being an interesting trademark! Sptiz is presented with his m butterfly gold in Munich. Be realistic. Roughly 10, athletes go to the Summer Games, and there are about events. If you include all the team sports, around 1, medals will be handed out. There are going to be a lot of disappointments.

Visit CNN. If you make it to the podium, make the most of the moment Take it all in because it will never happen again; at no other point in your life is somebody going to stick you on a podium like that and they're not going to play your national anthem.

In later life, your success won't be measured in the same way, because there's always going to be somebody that made a better deal, a bigger deal, a bigger acquisition with more money. So, if you're lucky enough to be one of those people, it's only going to be for a moment and then everybody else moves on. You've got to learn to live with that. He swam the meter butterfly in He considered pulling out of the meter freestyle out of fears he would be bested by teammate Jerry Heidenreich but then went ahead with the race, finishing a half-stroke ahead of Heidenreich in a world record sec.

He had won his sixth gold medal, surpassing the medal record held by Italian fencer Nedo Nadi, who had won five gold medals at the Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. The capstone of his gold medal sweep came on September 4, when his meter medley relay team won the gold.

Spitz, who is Jewish, was put under armed guard and then flown from Munich to London out of fear he might become a target. The nine Israeli hostages were eventually killed. He made a fortune from endorsements contracts, but a hoped-for movie career failed to pan out. He lost his amateur status and rarely swam in competition after In , at age 42, he launched a comeback bid but failed to qualify for the Barcelona Olympics.

He was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in and was a member of the first class of inductees into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame in But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!

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