Like many other excellent American sailors, Mark Spitz trained for several years in the Santa Clara (California) Swim Club. He served as captain of this intercollegiate swimming team at Indiana University, Bloomington (graduated 1972). In the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, he aroused controversy by publicly predicting that he'd catch six gold awards.
In fact, he won just two, both in team relay races (4 × 100-meter and 4 × 200-meter freestyle).
At the 1972 Games in Munich, Spitz was brilliant. He placed first and set world records in all four individual men's events he entered: the 100-meter and 200-meter freestyle (51.2 sec and 1 min 52.8 sec) along with the butterfly within the same distances (54.3 sec and 2 min 0.7 sec).
He added three more gold medals as a member of victorious U.S. men's teams (from the 400-meter and 800-meter freestyle relays and the 400-meter medley relay), which also set world records. His record for most gold medals at one Olympics stood until 2008 when divided by American swimmer Michael Phelps.
Spitz was among the first class to be inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983. He came out of retirement in 1992 in an ineffective effort to qualify for the Olympic team in the 50-meter butterfly race.
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