Mark Spitz

     Mark Spitz began swimming at the age of two.  He always seemed to rule the pool.  He held 17 world records for his age group.  When he was ten he was named “the world’s best ten-and–under swimmer.” 

     When Mark Spitz was just 16, he won the AAU National Championship for his first time.  The next year, at the Pan American Games, he won five gold medals, and he set ten world records. He thought he was the best.

     Before the 1968 Games in Mexico City, he felt he could win six gold medals, something no one else had ever done in the Olympics.  Mark Spitz did not achieve his goal .  He won two team gold medals, a silver and a bronze.  Despite these winnings,  Mark Spitz expressed  disappointed with his achievements.  

     The next four years he spent studying at Indiana University.  There he won almost every award possible and set just about every world record there is in swimming.  He also spent time preparing for  1972 Olympics in Munich.

     At Munich not only did Mark Spitz achieve his goal, but he earned one more gold medal.  He won a total of seven gold medals.  He set world records in every event he won achieving four individual and three team gold medals.  This was the greatest performance of any Olympic athlete in history.

     Mark Spitz became an instant celebrity back in the United States.  After these Olympics he had a short time where he was on television then settled into a real estate career.                    

    Seventeen years later Mark Spitz tried for a spot on the 1992 Olympic team.  He did not make the team and finished his career with 11 Olympic medals.

For more information visit: 

http://www.us~israel.org/isource/biogragraphy/spitz.html

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