Mark Spitz Wikipedia

Mark Spitz Wiki

Mark Andrew Spitz (born February 10, 1950) is a retired American swimmer, best known for winning seven gold medals at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, an achievement not surpassed until Michael Phelps won his eighth gold medal of the 2008 Olympics. Between 1968 and 1972, Spitz won nine Olympic gold medals, one silver, and one bronze; five Pan American golds; 31 National U.S. Amateur Athletic Union titles; and eight U.S. National Collegiate Athletic Association Championships. During those years, he set 33 world records. He was named World Swimmer of the Year in 1969, 1971 and 1972.


Mark Spitz Personal information

Full name: Mark Andrew Spitz
Nickname(s): Mark The Shark
Nationality: United States
Stroke(s): freestyle, butterfly
College team: Indiana Hoosiers (1968-1972)
Date of birth: February 10, 1950 (1950-02-10) (age 58)
Height: 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)

Swimming career

Spitz was born in Modesto, California, the first of three children of Arnold and Lenore Spitz, a Jewish family. When he was two years old, Spitz's family moved to Hawaii. Spitz swam at Waikiki Beach every day. "You should have seen that little boy dash into the ocean. He'd run like he was trying to commit suicide." Lenore Spitz told a reporter for TIME (April 12, 1968). 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. At 14, his family moved to Santa Clara so Spitz could train with George F. Haines of the Santa Clara Swim Club. From 1964 to 1968 Mark trained with Haines at SCSC and Santa Clara High School. During his four years there, Mark held national high school records in every stroke and in every distance [needs citation?]. It was a remarkable and unprecedented achievement. In 1966, at 16, he won the 100 meter butterfly at the National AAU Championships, the first of his 24 AAU titles. The following year, 1967 Mark set his first world record at a small California meet, in the 400 meter freestyle, with a time of 4:10.60, and emerged on the world swimming stage.


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.

He returned to Israel in 1969, following the Mexico Olympics, to again compete in the Maccabiah. This time he won six gold medals. He was again named outstanding athlete of the Games.

In 1985, Spitz lit a torch to open the games.

In 2005, he was a member of the U.S. delegation at the 17th Maccabiah Games.

In 2005, he spoke at the Maccabi Games Opening Ceremonies, which was held in Richmond, Virginia. The Weinstein JCC in Richmond was one of the Host JCC's for the 2005 games with over 1,000 teenagers participating in various sports, including swimming.


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.


1968 Olympics

Holder of 10 world records already[citation needed], Spitz predicted brashly he would win six golds at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. However, he won only two team golds: the 4 x 100 meter freestyle in 3:31:70, and the 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay in 7:52:33. In addition, Spitz finished 2nd in the 100 m butterfly in 00:56:40. 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.[8] Russell did briefly match Spitz's world record in late August of 1967, holding the world record equally with Spitz for five 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 4 x 100 m Medley Relay which gave Russell his second Gold medal and the USA team another World Record swim.


College training

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. 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 nicknamed "Mark the Shark" by his teammates.


1972 Olympics

At the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich (West Germany), Spitz was back to maintain his bid for the six gold medals. He did even more, winning seven Olympic gold medals. Further, Spitz set a new world record in each of the seven events (the 100 m freestyle [00:51:22], 200 m freestyle [01:52:78], 100 m butterfly [00:54:27], 200 m butterfly [02:00:70], 4 x 100 m freestyle relay [03:26:42], 4 x 200 m freestyle relay [07:35:78] and the 4 x 100 m medley relay [03:48:16]). Originally Spitz was reluctant to swim the 100m freestyle fearing a less than gold medal finish. Minutes before the race he confessed on the pool deck to ABC's Donna de Varona, "I know I say I don't want to swim before every event but this time I'm serious. If I swim six and win six, I'll be a hero. If I swim seven and win six, I'll be a failure." Spitz won by half a stroke in a world-record 51.22.

His participation in the 1972 Munich Olympic games gained him a bit of notoriety as he swam with a mustache, whereas most competitors opt to shave their entire bodies.

Spitz is one of five Olympians to win nine or more career gold medals: Larissa Latynina, Paavo Nurmi and Carl Lewis also have nine; only swimmer Michael Phelps has won more with 14. Spitz's record of seven gold medals in a single Olympics was not surpassed until 2008 by Michael Phelps at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Spitz was evacuated from Munich when 11 athletes and officials from Israel's Olympic team were kidnapped and later killed by Palestinian terrorists. Officials were worried that Spitz might be targeted because of his Jewish heritage. He had already finished his competition.

Retirement

Following the Munich Olympics, even though he was still only 22, Spitz retired from competition.

In 1999, Spitz ranked #33 on ESPN SportsCentury 50 Greatest Athletes, the only aquatic athlete to make the list.


Hall of Fame

International Swimming Hall of Fame, Inducted 1977.
International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, Inducted 1979.
United States Olympic Hall of Fame, Inducted 1983.[14]
San Jose Sports Hall of Fame, inducted Wednesday, November 14, 2007.
National Jewish Museum Sports Hall of Fame, Inducted 2007.
Long Beach City College Hall of Fame, Inducted 2007
Indiana University Athletics Hall of Fame

Film and television career

After his retirement at age 22, his management tried to get him into show business while his name was still hot. In 1973–74, 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. Spitz went to work for ABC Sports in 1976 and worked on many sports presentations, including coverage of the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal and the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.[20] In 1985 he appeared as a TV announcer in Challenge of a Lifetime. In 1998 he appeared in a TV commercial for Sony PlayStation—however, Spitz was clearly uncomfortable on camera, and he mostly had occasional bit spots in shows and commercials. His lackluster acting performances soon led to a cessation of movie and TV offers. He continued as a broadcaster for some time, but within a few years, he had all but vanished as a public figure.

In 2006 he received critical praise for his narration of Freedom's Fury, a Hungarian documentary about the Olympic water polo team's famous Blood in the Water match against Russia during the Revolution of 1956—considered the most famous match in water polo history. The film was executive produced by Quentin Tarantino and Lucy Liu, and made its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival.

In November 2007, Spitz made a cameo appearance on Amanda Beard's first television commercial (for GoDaddy) featuring her own seven Olympic medals (won between 1996–2004).

In a live, in-studio interview with KCRA host Mike TeSelle on June 14, 2008, Spitz commented that he no longer maintains his iconic mustache because it had become "too gray."


Personal life

Family life

When Spitz returned from the Olympics, he began dating the daughter of one of his father's business acquaintances after seeing her picture.[23] Suzy was a tougher sell. "She was disinterested," Spitz says. Less than a year after Munich, Spitz and Suzy Weiner, a UCLA theater student and part-time model, were married on May 6, 1973.[25] They have two sons: Matthew (b. October, 1981) and Justin (b. September, 1991).


Schooling

From 1964 to 1968 Mark attended the Santa Clara High School. After graduating he went on to Indiana University.

At Indiana University from 1968-72, he was a pre-dental student and member of Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity. Time Magazine asked him if he wanted to return to dental school after the Olympics. "I always wanted to be a dentist from the time I was in high school, and I was accepted to dental school in the spring of 1972. I was planning to go, but after the Olympics there were other opportunities. I did some television and speaking engagements, and things just went from there."

According to the Indiana University School of Dentistry, Mark Spitz was planning on attending in the fall of 1972, but instead he moved to California. He was quoted in the Chicago Tribune in June, 2004 saying, “I’m probably the most famous dentist who never became a dentist in the world.”

Job and career

Soon after his return to the U.S., Spitz landed several lucrative corporate endorsement contracts. He earned about $7 million in a two-year period.[28] He bought a Ferrari and says he made more than $1 million when he started a very successful real-estate company in Beverly Hills.[22] "A million dollars in 1972 would be equivalent to more than $10 million today," Spitz said. "I did very well, thank you very much."[29] "I would say I was a pioneer. There wasn't anyone who'd gone to the Olympics before me who capitalized the same way on opportunity. It depends on timing, it depends on hype, it depends on the economy, and most importantly, it depends on looks. I mean, I've never seen a magazine of uglies. That's our society. I'm not saying it's right. That's just the facts."

Per his official Web site, Spitz is currently self-employed as a corporate spokesperson and motivational speaker. However, Sports Yahoo! lists his occupation as a stock broker and motivational speaker.[31] According to a recent interview "Spitz became a stockbroker in 2002 and has since moved into private equity. He is now also dabbling in the "water business," as he calls it, and is in negotiations to build a water-bottling facility on aquifer-rich land that he and a business partner own.

He has pursued various entrepreneurial projects with former NBA player Rick Barry. He travels the world delivering about 25 lectures a year, and has just written a memoir, The Extraordinary Life of An Olympic Champion.


Hobbies

His hobbies include sailing, skiing and collecting art.[34] He has been involved in blue water ocean racing (sailing) and in the summer of 1981 competed in his third Trans-Pac Yacht Race from Los Angeles to Hawaii, finishing third.

People always asked Spitz, "Do you still swim?" Remarkably, the answer most of the time was "no."


Iconic mustache during Olympics

In an era when other swimmers, male and female were shaving body hair, he swam with a mustache. When asked why he initially grew one he stated "I grew the mustache because a coach in college said I couldn't grow one." Spitz said he originally grew the mustache as a form of rebellion against the clean-cut look imposed on him in college. “It took a long time to grow,” he said.It took four months to grow, but Spitz was proud of it, he decided the mustache was a "good-luck piece."

Mark Spitz is quoted as saying, "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. I had some fun with a Russian coach who asked me if my mustache slowed me down. I said, "No, as a matter of fact, it deflects water away from my mouth, allows my rear end to rise and make me bullet-shaped in the water, and that's what had allowed me to swim so great. He's translating as fast as he can for the other coaches, and the following year every Russian male swimmer had a mustache."

According to a Sports Illustrated article, on Valentine's Day in 1988, after talking about shaving off his mustache for a year, he finally did. "He looked great with it, don't get me wrong," explained Suzy, "but he looks so handsome without it."

When he was asked why he shaved it off he responded "well, one - I'm not swimming anymore, two - it started to turn gray, and three - my wife had never seen me, nor my family, without the mustache... I'm happy [without it]."

Source: wikipedia.org

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