Mark Spitz was born February 10, 1950 in Modesto, California to Arnold Spitz and his wife Lenore Sylvia Smith, whose family’s name had been Sklotovick. The family moved to Honolulu when Spitz was 2, permitting him to swim at Waikiki Beach on a near daily basis. He was 6 when his family moved to Sacramento, California, where he began to compete at his local swim club. At age 9, he trained undr Sherm Chavoor at the Arden Hills Swim Club in Sacramento. By age 10, Spitz held one world age-group record and 17 national records. His family moved again when he was 14, bringing him under the tutelage of coach George Haines of the Santa Clara Swim Club from 1964 to 1968. During his four years there, Spitz earned national high school records in every stroke and at every distance. At age 16 he won the 100-meter butterfly at the Amateur Athletic Union national championships, the first of 24 total AAU titles.
Spitz’s first international competition was at the 1965 Maccabiah Games in Israel, where he won gold medals in the 400-meter freestyle, the 1,500-meter freestyle, the 400-meter individual medley, and the 800-meter freestyle relay, and was named outstanding athlete of the Games. In 1967, he won five gold medals at the Pan American Games. In the 1968 Olympics, Spitz won two team golds, the 4 x 100 meter freestyle relay, and 4 x 200 freestyle. In 1969, he returned to the Maccabiah Games winning six gold medals.
At Indiana University under coach Doc Counsilman, he won eight individual NCAA titles. In 1971, he won the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the U.S. Then came the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, where he won seven gold medals, setting new world records in each of them. They were the 100-meter freestyle, 200-meter freestyle, 100-meter butterfly, 300-meter butterfly, 4×100-meter freestyle relay, 4 x 200-meter freestyle relay and 4 x 100-meter medley relay. Munich was the Olympics at which 11 Israeli athletes were murdered by Palestinian terrorists, prompting Spitz, as a prominent Jewish competitor, to be whisked to London for safety. The record of 7 gold medals in a single Olympics remained until Michael Phelps won 8 in the 2008 Summer Olympics. Spitz retired at age 22, but 19 years later attempted a comeback for the 1992 Summer Olympics. However, Spitz was two seconds slower than the Olympic standard and failed to qualify. In the interim, Spitz appeared on various television variety shows, worked as a commentator at other swimming events, and appeared in commercials.
He married Suzy Weiner, a UCLA theater student and part-time model in 1973 in a traditional Jewish wedding in Beverly Hills. The couple had two sons, Matthew and Justin.
Tomorrow, February 11: Leo Szilard
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SDJW condensation of a Wikipedia article