Mark Spitz Profile (Part I)
Mark Andrew Spitz was born on the 10th of February, 1950 and is a former American swimmer. At the Munich Olympic Games in 1972, he won seven gold medals. This record was only broken by American swimmer Michael Phelps at the 2008 Beijing Olympics,
where he managed to win 8 gold medals.
From 1968 to 1972, Mark won 5 gold medals at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, 31 US Amateur Athletic Union titles followed by 8 US National Collegiate Athletic Association titles. In this time period, Mark set 33 world records. He was adorned with
the title of the Swimmer of the Year in 1969, 1971 and 1972.
Mark Spitz was born in California, and is the eldest of his two siblings. When his family moved to Hawaii, when he was just two years old, he used to swim in the Waikiki beach everyday and that is how he started his swimming. When his family moved back to
California, Mark started training at a local swimming club at the age of six. He started training with Coach Sherm Chavoor from the age of nine at the Arden Hills Swimming Club.
Mark was the winner of 17 national age group titles along with setting one world record at the age of 10 years. Spitz then moved to Santa Clara at the age of 14 so that he could swim at the Santa Clara Swim Club under the training of Coach George F. Haines.
He swam at this club for about 4 years and during this time, he held the national title in every event and distance swimming competition held over there. At the age of 16, Mark won the 100 metre butterfly meet at the National AUU Championships. In the year
that followed, Mark set a world record in the 400 metre freestyle event in California. He finished the race under 4 minutes and 10.60 seconds.
The first International tournament that Mark contended was the Maccabiah Games that took place in1965. He was only 15 at that time when Mark managed to win four gold medals and was named as an outstanding athlete for his achievements. Four years later, he
competed in the Maccabiah Games once again in Israel and this time he improved his performance and won a whopping six gold medals. He later became a torch bearer in 1985 for the Maccabiah Games.
Mark Spitz managed to clinch five gold medals in the Pan American Games of 1967 and set a world record which was not broken for over 4 decades until the Brazilian swimmer Thiago Pereira took home 6 gold medals in the Pan American Games of 2007.
In the year that followed, Mark Spitz took part in the Olympics of 1968. At that time, he was already the holder of ten world records. He won two team gold medals in the 4 by 100 metre freestyle event and the 4 by 200 metre freestyle race in the Olympics
that took place in Mexico City. Spitz also won the silver medal in the 100 metre butterfly meet. The swimmer who won the gold medal in this race was his compatriot Doug Russell. This was a very close victory as Mark reached the finish mark just half a second
later than Russell. Mark did not qualify to swim in the 4 by 100 metre Medley Relay in the Olympics since he was defeated by Russell.
Since Mark’s swimming skills were not found in any of his teammates during his college training years of swimming, he was dubbed as ‘Mark the Shark’ by his college fellows and friends. Mark was not happy with his performance in the Olympics of 1968 and so
he joined the Indiana University and started training with one of the legendary coaches of the country, Doc Counsilman. Doc also coached Mark at Mexico City. In 1972, Mark Spitz set numerous world records at the US Olympic Swim Trials that were arranged at
Portage Park in Chicago.
To be continued...
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