Seven events. Seven gold medals. Seven world records. Possibly the greatest single Olympic performance ever. But for American swimming legend and former Hoosier Mark Spitz, his unprecedented and unmatched achievement at the 1972 Munich Olympics simply represented the final chapter in his storied career.\nWhen Spitz looks back 30 years, he sees Munich as "the culmination of a journey of different events in my career." The string of Munich races he won - 100 and 200-meter butterfly, 100 and 200-meter freestyle, and three team relays - ended an incredible stretch to close his career. Spitz proudly notes that 17 of the last 20 finals in which he swam, he won in world record time -- the final seven in Munich's Olympic Pool.\nThe analogy the three-time World Swimmer of the Year uses most to describe his advantage leading into 1972 is that of modern day golfing sensation Tiger Woods. "Part of winning is the phenomenon of being able to convince those that compete against you that they are competing for second," said the 52-year-old Spitz. "If you are a golfer today, every time you go out there and Tiger Woods was in the field of play, you wouldn't be thinking about beating him, you'd be thinking about whom amongst us is going to get second." At his prime, Spitz commanded the same competitive respect in his sport.\nWhile at IU, Spitz recorded eight individual NCAA titles and contributed to four school NCAA Championships. He was inducted into the IU Hall of Fame in 1982.\nDespite his stature at the time, Spitz was under intense pressure in Munich to erase his disappointing performance at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. At those Games, the 18-year-old California native boldly claimed he would win six gold medals. Spitz did win two in team relays, but he failed to win an individual gold medal, instead claiming a silver and bronze. The dramatizing event sent Spitz into a depressed state. Four years later in Munich, Spitz was not going to make the same mistake twice, so he refrained from any pre-meet predictions.\nHe got off to a fast start winning the 200-meter butterfly in 2:00.70 record time, besting U.S. and college teammate Gary Hall, Sr. Day after day, he carefully collected his gold medals and world records. But, what worried him the most was the 100-meter freestyle, an event in which he held the world record by his slimmest margin. Being his last individual event on the seventh day of competition, the sprint "was the hardest to swim" Spitz recalled. But there was no question that he had to swim it. \n"If I never swam the 100 free, which was the sprint event, then I wouldn't have been recognized as the fastest swimmer in the world," Spitz said, recalling that his favorite memory of the '72 Games was finishing that race. Spitz led from start to finish, touching in 51.22 seconds - another world record swim.\nAfter his remarkable sweep, Spitz, who is of Jewish descent, quickly departed Munich the day after Arab terrorists took Israeli athletes hostage in the Olympic Village, and were subsequently killed in what Spitz called "an absolutely tragic event." During a travel layover in London, he posed for a poster commissioned by the German magazine Stern, wearing only his signature mustache, a red, white and blue swimsuit, and seven gold medals around his neck. The poster became an instant hit and he received royalties on the sale of 1.2 million units. The venture jumpstarted his post-swimming, commercial appeal as a celebrity endorser.\nBecoming one of the greatest Olympians of all-time is more than a one man job. Spitz credits "100 percent" of his success to the trio of legendary Olympic swim coaches -- George Haines, Dr. James "Doc" Counsilman, and Sherm Chavoor - who guided him throughout different stages of his career. "They were my right coach at the right time for what they had to offer," said Spitz. "If I have had the coaches in a different order, it may not have worked." \nHaines developed Spitz's talents as a teenager in Santa Clara, Calif. Counsilman, his collegiate coach at IU, gave Spitz the emotional toughness to bounce back from his Mexico City disappointment. Chavoor, his personal coach during the 1972 Olympics, complemented the other two and "would never take any of my guff," Spitz recalled.\nOne of the first defining events in his career came in 1967, when Spitz broke his first world record at age 17 in a 400-meter freestyle exhibition against Olympic great Don Schollander at a fun relay meet in California. According to Spitz, Haines instructed him to "come to workout on Monday and keep your mouth shut. The whole world knows what you will have done. You were the hunter, and now you are the hunted."\nSpitz went on to tally 26 individual world records in the freestyle and butterfly events and another seven on team relays. His final Olympic medal count totaled 11 (9 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze), a number equaled by only two other American athletes -- Matt Biondi (swimming) and Carl Osburn (shooting). \nAt the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Biondi made an attempt to match Spitz's seven gold medal haul, but he came up short with five golds, one silver and a bronze. Many are now looking for Australian freestyler Ian Thorpe and up-and-coming American swimmer Michael Phelps to attempt it at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece. Though, Thorpe isn't so sure. "I don't think it'll be done again," Thorpe said recently.\n"It is easier to win seven gold medals now because they've added the 50 free," said Spitz, noting that today's swimmers can win several freestyle events and be on all three winning relays. "When I swam, I had to dominate the sprint events, which was the 100 free and the 200 free. And I had to totally dominate -- a total monopoly on one stroke -- which in this case was butterfly for me."\nHe believes it is harder to win two stroke events these days because professional swimmers have become very event-specific. "If you are a 200-meter butterflyer, you may not be able to swim the 100," he said.\nSpitz, who lives in Los Angeles, Calif., made an unsuccessful bid for the 1992 Olympics in the 100-meter butterfly. He got the bug to attempt it when he noticed that his 1972 Olympic time of 54.27 would have ranked as the third fastest time in the world at the time. \n"There were guys that were my age at that time, about 40, that were swimming masters and they were swimming times faster than they were in their 20s." Convinced he could do the same, Spitz started training again. \nHowever, the challenge proved to be too tough and he quietly ended his comeback without qualifying for U.S. Olympic Trials. The competitive advantage that he enjoyed in 1972 no longer was applicable. \n "I think what made me great, was that I was a great racer, not because I was a great swimmer," Spitz said.
(Stephen Pegram is a 1991 IU graduate and is a former IU swimmer and IDS reporter.)\nCourtesy of usolympicteam.com
