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Mark Spitz - Mark His
Words
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When the eighteen year old Olympic swimming champ declared he would
return with six Olympic gold medals at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and came
back with silver and bronze medals, the world laughed at him. Unfazed by
it, the champ returned from the next Games, the Munich Olympics in 1972,
with seven golds and the high of having created world records in each of
the seven events that he had participated. That is a champion, true
Olympian style.
The champion we are talking about is Mark Spitz, born to swim, born to
win. When he was taken to the waters at the tender age of two, he
took to it like a duck. His initial training was under his
taskmaster father, Arnold Spitz, who believed that winning was everything.
He was trained for
competitions right from an early age. His father would compromise on
nothing, when it was a question of his son’s training.
Only the best coaches for the future champion.
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In fact, when his training hours clashed with his Hebrew classes,
the father is believed to have told the rabbi, “Even God loves a
winner.” Such was the passion with which Mark was reared for
becoming a champion. This is not to steal any credit from the
”Shark”. (He later came to be called “Mark the Shark”.)
Mark too gave his all to swimming. Whether or not he understood and
appreciated his father’s efforts, he co-operated and realized his
father’s dream many times over. By age ten, he topped the list of World
Under-10. He had also created seventeen world records.
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Mark Spitz |
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Arnold made the biggest decision of his life, when he shifted his family
to Santa Clara. The move was made in order to facilitate Mark to be
trained by George Haines of the Santa Clara Swim Club. The move also meant
that Arnold would now have to travel one hundred and sixty miles to office
and back everyday. It was no big deal for the determined father.
By the time he was seventeen, he was ready to take on the adult champs.
At the Pan American Games, in the year 1967, Mark walked away with five
golds in his kitty. At age eighteen he had a proud collection of
twenty-six international and national titles and was the holder of
thirty-six records at the national and international levels. He was a
master in the butterfly stroke.
Between the disappointment of the 1968 Games and the 1972 one, Mark
continued annexing titles and creating records. He was crowned World
Swimmer of the Year in his freshman, junior and senior years.
And
then came the Big Games in Munich. Mark participated, won gold and
re-scripted records in the following events: individual – 200-metre
butterfly; 200-metre freestyle; hundred- meter
butterfly; 100-metre freestyle (beating his own record); team –
4x100-metre freestyle relay, the 4x200-metre freestyle relay and the
4x100-metre medley relay. The world had now learned to mark his words. For
he was a true Olympian champion.
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