Mark Spitz
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Added: 5 years ago
From: yuzik
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  • My friend is 16 and can do that time

  • Does anyone else find it strange that Spitz's Wikipedia page doesn't mention that he was escorted out of Munich under heavy guard as a safety measure because of the Black September Israeli hostage situation? It's was a bitter end to his ultimate triumph, I know, but it's also a pretty big event in his bio, isn't it?

  • If you had a dollar for every pixel in this video, you'd have... a dollar. Thanks for sharing, though! :)

  • he had the best coach of all time with doc counsilmann. half of the things you see on pool decks today, counsilmann came up with. the man was a fucking genius, and his coaching philosophy was years ahead of the rest of the world, and by the late 80s, early 90s the rest of the world caught up to the americans. and that's why the olympic races are a lot closer today than they were in the 70s.

  • Watching the guy race sends shivers down my spine

  • michael phelps takes steroid supplements and Growth hormone from injected cows. spitz is the best.

  • I just found out that he was part of my familly!

  • i loved all 13 pixels of this video

  • We swam without goggles because we weren't wimps like you guys are today!

  • wouldn't the mustache slow him down?

  • @vivalaryan54 When a Russian coach asked if his mustache slowed him down, Spitz made stuff up and said it made him faster; every Russian male swimmer had a mustache the next year. :P

  • how did they swim without goggles back then?

  • Mark Spitz is without a doubt an extraordinary athlete. However, he was a very arrogant man. Personally, I have a lot of respect for him, but I do not like him. Michael Phelps is however, definitely the better swimmer. Considering the amount of competition he has to deal with he has still remained under beaten in 3 Olympic events for the past 9 years! Spitz even stated him self that Phelps is the greatest swimmer of all time. So anyone thinking otherwise is an idiot and wrong.

  • truly a legend and one of if not the greatest ever to swim for indiana university

  • I trained the Mark at the New York Health and Racquet Club on 24E. 13th Street,

    Stupid (young) me, I did not know who or how great this man was. He was much more humble in comparison to the young pot head that recently beat his record.

    Must Wonder if the swim suits were as high tech as they were then if he would ever have been beaten.

    Mark, you're still the man. Regards-Your Trainer

  • his awesome stache slows him down

  • Mark Spitz and Michael Phelps are both great athletes. You can't compare them. Well done guys on all that you have achieved and you both make the US proud.

  • 7 gold medals, 7 Olympic and World Records in each event he took part. Not even Phelps achieved that. Phelps won 7 of his 8 in WR time but only broke the Olympic record in 100m butterfly. Whilst we must acknowledge Phelps amazing haul and new individual record, we must never belittle or lessen the impact of Spitz's 1972 feat. He even swam the 100m, although he felt wouldn't win and thus spoil his perfect record. In the end he did both, win and break the WR.

  • did someone said that the quality of this video sucks?

  • Oh yeah?? Mark Spitz is a bad Athelete?? If so, why the hell did Thorpedo say it was impossible to overcome his record??? Mark is one of the greatest athlete of all time!

  • where are the others???

    next time use better calculator!!!

    AND i love his mustach (everybody shave their balls for few seconds )

  • @OlyMp241 I love his mustach too! but was he a real jew? or was he intact like all other athletes?

    did they cut babies circumsision in LA where he was born?

  • This thread is a perfect example how many retarded has access to computers.

    Mark Spitz is legendary swimmer none of you will achieve 1 % what he could.

    In his time people swam by muscle not because they were loaded with HGH.

    Why the present swimmers has oversize feet for some of them its even hard to buy a pair shoes.The last people who swam "clearly" was in his time.

    You people will all die one day,but even your grand-grandson will know who was Mark Spitz. 

  • anyone has ever competed in the olympics was a top-notch athelete of their era

    i dont think some of yall are aware of how difficult is to win one gold medal in the olympics....but to win 7 then 8 GOLD medals just means ur the best of all time

  • Phelps OWNS spitz. Spizt is Phelp's total bitch. lol. I like that.

  • Thumbs up if you only looked up the name "Mark Spitz" because of the Family Guy episode that he was mentioned.

  • Mark Spitz + Michael Phelps = EPIC POOL ACHIEVEMENTS!

  • you cant compare phelps and spitz as with the modern advances in sports science of course phelps has an advantage. both athletes in their own right are exceptional athletes

  • hmzkönte echt so schön sein wenn mich einer vor dem allein sein rettet!

  • I sing about Mark Spitz in The History Song.

  • all of you are Retards you cant say that Phelps or Spitz it better than each other ... Think one of em won the competitions in the 20th century and the other in the 21st and over those times new accesories for training and streamline were created to speed your times up... Mark spitz it just as equal because you have to take in mind that Spitz never use goggles ( THAT AFFECTS BIG TIME!) and his training used less accesories then never had kick boards or speacial pads!!!

    FINISHING PHRASE: EQUAL!

  • actually, as everyone in the world had the same conditions at the time, phelps is better, because he won more. spitz may have had less technical advantages, but everyone else at the time was held in check by those conditions. same with phelps. though phelps had better training, suits and goggles, so did everyone at beijing. all you're proving is that spitz has legitimate reasons his times are much slower thanphelps'. the lzr was also available to everyone at beijing, so you can't say that either

  • well if u were smart enough to look it up spitz has9 gold i silver and 1 bronze

  • Any of you who say spitz is better is clearly a retard and needs to shut up obviously phelps 8 beat spitz 7 and spitz never did anything like that again while phelps won 6 the previous olympics which shows that the competition sucked that year and spitz wasn't that good of a swimmer

  • oh.. the competition sucked THAT YEAR?? did he not break olympic records? in EVERY event? ...

    retard, shut up.

  • Mark Spitz put the speedos on all the youth up and down the east coast, it was a fantastic era, I was 12 years old at the time an at Myrtle Beach all these young hard bodied tanned young boys running rambunciously around the beach in speedos, amazing, what happened? Where did all the speedos go?

  • fag

  • I can't believe all the moaning about the suits. It isn't that big of a difference. Good grief. Some people just need to chill out.

  • it is a big difference....

  • @Minator...I've used jammers vs. fast skin body suits. There is a difference, but it isn't that big.

  • I was a swimmer in the 70's and Spitz was the man. If you can find & read the out of print book 50 Meter Jungle, it describes how hard Spitz & others trained in that era. He was a gifted athlete and did not have the benefit of modern training and stroke technique that is now common. Along with the new suits, being able to kick and swim underwater on starts & turns also has driven times down. As with all sports, present success is built on the past.

  • mark spitz is a legend

  • What the fuck?? Whats wrong with all you dickheads.. Mark Spitz is a was a fucking good athlete, and Micheal Phelps is too.. You cant compare them, because Mark was in 72 and Phelps in 08..

    Fuck all of you who says Mark is an bad athlete, i would like to see you swim 200m freestyle in just under 10 minutes..

    Your all just a bunch of fat slobs.

  • @Mokurkalfe who cant swim 200m freestyle in under 10 minutes lol?

  • @Mokurkalfe Dude clearly, any swimmer with any skill, can beat 10 mins in a 200LCM . I can swim freaking 400 back under that dude.

  • @Mokurkalfe um not to say anything but I'm 12 and I can swim a 200 Freestyle in 2:14 but i agree with you on no comparing Phelps and Spitz

  • @Mokurkalfe I'll take that challenge. I'll even swim it under 2.05 minutes :p

  • @Mokurkalfe

    man, I totally agree with you! great answer!!

    there too many idiots on this world!!

  • Relative to the debate regarding Phelps versus Spitz, you can't tell shit from this pos of a video. Come on, if you are going to post, meet a basic standard- it must be clear

  • Are you an idiot?

  • No, your fucking mother is you bitch ass motherfucker, after all, she shit out a bitch like you. Fuck you, fuck your mother and fuck off. The quality of this video is shit.

  • I see your mother dropped you numerous times as a child. Sorry for bothering you today, sir. I will not reply to your comments after this one.

  • "Sorry sir"..."sorry sir"... You sound like one of those pathetic indians pretending to be british using all of these salutary notes.

    Fuck you scumbag. Go fuck your retarded mom.

    It's hard to attempt to make comparisons when the fucking video is so blurry. Phelps and Spitz were great swimmers in their respective decades.

  • Records are made to be broken...but...the one thing you should take a look at when comparing Spitz to Phelps is the margin of victory. Take nothing away from Phelps, he is the best in the world right now but he did not dominate his races the way that Spitz did in 72. No way of knowing who would be better given the same training, suits, caps etc..... Not really important either...what is important is the fact that they both acheived what most thought was impossible.

  • @rgonzales56 there is only one way to up it now, 8 gold, 8 wr; spitz did 7/7 phelps did 8/7 -- who will be 8/8, if anyone?

  • @rgonzales56 lol lochte has been beating phelps recently just saying i agree with everything you say tho....besides the phelps being the best now...of course your comment is a year old :p

  • @rgonzales56 Well said dude, have to remember about inertia though. The guys are getting faster and faster, but the faster you go the smaller the margin is going to be....

  • You guys are idiots if you say that Spitz is a bad swimmer. Phelps just went 49.8 in the 100m fly. Spits went 54.8. That's a 5 second difference. Now the suit makes a 1 second difference, all the hair he had would be another second (he had a lot of hair) and no goggles, a half a second. That right there would bring him down to a 52.3, only 2.5 seconds slower than Phelps. Now include how technique has changed and how they didn't know that eating impacts your swim, and new training techniques.

  • You're right. Spitz is a beast. Michael Phelps wins because of modern day technology. The suit might even make more of a difference than one second. To be honest, these suits can be at least 1000 dollars, and Spitz had what, a speedo and a shitload of hair? At least you know what you're talking about.

  • no you are retarded. They didnt have the special suits back then

  • nobody is talking about the suits. spitz wasnt half the swimmer phelps is, and spitz is just a jealous kike.

  • Nobody is talking about the suits? the suits make the swimmers faster.... and more faster... every year. And added to that, spitz was swimming with a moustache and look at his hair

  • all anyone talks about is how the violin is playing for spitz. jealous of Phelps's success because in spitz' mind, he NEVER thought anyone would beat him. But Phelps did.

  • go around and ask anyone: phelps or spitz? Everyone will say phelps. Spitz never really was that good of a swimmer.

  • im sorry but i dont see you up there in the olympics and holding 7 gold medal with a title of one of the greatest olympians ever

  • Notice how you cannot type the number """8"""? LOL. Spitz is a fucking joke and a kike jew at that.  Loser showed all of his jealousy last year due to Phelp's success. I suppose when the only thing you have in life is to hang onto a month from 30 years ago you get jealous.

    8 trumps 7.

  • why would i ask anyone? The facts say it. His 7 medals are worth much more then the 8 phelps got. Besides OMEGA(the official time keeper at the olympics) said themselves that cavic touched the "button" first. But thats not the point i dont want to argue about that now.

  • what a jew

  • hells yeah !!!!!!

  • Mark Spitz, now thats a champ, no swim wear, no bullshit roids, special diet or whatever...

    I see you are all comparing him to Phelps, now please...how can you compare a human to genetically modified fuck (Phelps)? Are you all retarded?

  • and he did it with a full head of hair and a stache

  • i totally agree with you...

  • If you know even one thing about top level sports, you'd know that all top level athletes had the best standards in nutrition, training, and doping. In 1972 doping was already known and believe me a 7 gold medalist would not win it all naturally. I'm not saying he necessarily took roids, but I'll put money on the fact that he relied on at least one synthetic thing.

  • genetically modified lol, and you call others retarded

  • look everybody, everything becomes better and more effective with time, but Spitz was the shit in his time with the standards of training, competing, and dieting back then. Spitz's best times today wouldnt even qualify him into the olympics, but back then it was the best

  • wouldn't qualify him? okay... im sure it would.

  • ok yah, thats my bad I just compared his best to today's standings now, it would qualify him , possibly even into the finals or semis, but it would not win him any medals

  • ohh yeah, forsure would not win.

  • you guys are a joke if you think spitz would be as good as phelps even with current training/technique. Swimming back then wasn't shit as compared to what it is now and nobody even knew how to swim correctly, just look at their sloppy forms in the races on this video lmfao.

  • you're an idiot....nobody even knew how to swim correctly? you dumb fuck...

  • is not harder is difrent difrent body is for difrent event for some1 sprinting may be beater because of there bodey and dito for long distance.

  • hey bleedhuskared1220,

    its not about that all of these swimmers are real good.dont judge them..they worked hard to get their medals.dont say that maybe you are not even a swimmer...

  • Can't each be praised for their work and ability? Enough with child bickering.

  • You think this have to do with the fact that it was held in Germany!

  • The rules of swimming have changed over the years and it has become easier and faster swimming by those new rules. One example is breaststroke. Back in Spitz' day, the person's head wasn't allowed to go underwater. Now that they allow that, swimmers gain much more speed. Take it from me, my dad swam with Spitz in the Santa Clara Swim Center back in the day and things as far as competitive swimming was a lot different! There is no real way to compare them but they are both amazing swimmers!

  • Phelps was built to swim and he is very talented, but even though they swam without the fancy equipment back then, they weren't as picky on the technique or making sure things were correct, swimmers now have things alot harder thanks to Spitz and Phelps for setting high standards....they are both ahmazing and shouldn't be compared b/c they are different..

    Phelps said that his goal was to beat the records set by Spitz...

  • his goal was to beat records as in times by spitz rofl if thats what u meant

  • All you guys are idiots. You perfectly well know Phelps just powned Spitz, and yet you come back on this video and try to defend him. HAHA.

    Phelps = Beast

    Spitz = Jealous Fag

  • spitz amazing, phelps just naturally better.

  • He worked hard to get where hes at.. he has naturally talent too, but he worked hard as hell

  • yeah, i know. 5 hours a day trainig, then 2 hours dryland, 365 days a year.

  • lol your the idiot. Spitz was great for his time, but his records were broken 2 years after he set them by other swimmers. How is spitz a jealous fag when he was the first to do them? Phelps is better cause of the advanced swimming technology now a days. I dont know how fast spitz would be now but the fact is that phelps is faster and nobody can say the spitz would be faster with goggles or whatever the hell you guys are making up.

  • I'd like to see Phelps race against Spitz back then without the swimcap, goggles, suits etc. Spitz was more talented, Phelps is just a freak, with hius ridiculous body for swimming (thin torso, jips, big feet, super-flrxible ankles, long arms).

    It would be a race of talent vs. freakness, and Spitz would win.

  • Phelps swam faster than Spitz long before he even tried on the new swimsuits. Phelps broke his own world record back in Feb. 2007 and he didn't even shave. He even had a full-on beard! He went 1:53 back then, a full 7 seconds faster than Spitz ever swam. Mind you, Phelps broke the world record again in Beijing, this time with goggles full of water, which is worse than swimming without goggles.

  • @pierangeli14 the strokes in swimming evolve a lot in 36 years. the style phelps was taught was much more advanced than spitz. whilst i believe phelps is the greatest swimmer ever, you cannot say for certain that he would have beaten spitz back in 72

  • @adamlewis934 @adamlewis934 I agreee thugh it's not just the strokes, it's advances in swim science in general, plus diet, dryland training, etc. But re: the stroke sepcifically, the most glaring example is how high or "vertical" out of the water Spitz comes with each breath on the butterfly. "Going vertical" is now considered a beginners mistake and Spitz could have chopped off a huge amount of time right there. But Phelps has the edge in # of Olympic gold medals/world records and versatility.

  • For some reason a lot of people get offended when they touch Phelps. Spitz will always be a legend such as Schwarzenegger in bodybuilding, and legends live forever. Pioneers are always remembered.

  • Funny story: When I was little and about 9 I watched Mark during the Olympics and was absolutely in puppy love. In the summer we would go stay at my mom's bosse's penthouse in Marina Del Rey California. Mark, after winning the Olympics did a milk advisory commercial. The Marina Towers had a dinning room where low and behold Mark Spitz was. He had a glass of red wine and a glass of milk. I asked him why he wasn't drinking his milk

  • im in love w/ michael phelps but its safe 2 say that mark spitz is really good 2 after all w/o spitz i douht that michael would b the great swimmer that he is 2day

  • More respect for Spitz, simply because he did it in style. Go Moustache!

  • the equipment (eg , swiming caps, better suits) do make a big difference. phelps had that advantage. but so did everyone eles in the games. he won a medal more than spitz, so he has acheved more.

  • That's the kind of comment that would give you the life expectancy of a housefly if I met you.

  • It's not worth comparing Spitz to Phelps, different swimmers, different times, different events.

  • not to mention Phelps beat a horde of Australians that weren't anywhere near their current level of strength in '76...Spitz had to beat what, Germans? maybe fellow Americans were probably his biggest challenge.

  • oh, also, no one should comment about how michael phelps had such a close race with that serbian guy in the 100 m butterfly..i mean, watch the video..mark spitz had an extremely close race too, even if it wasn't a win by a margin of .01 seconds. come on, it was still verrrrryyyyy close.

  • oh yea i saw that on demand today man i love phelps

  • i hate how everyone always thinks that oldschool is synonymous with being better, or being more pure and true to the form of a sport. wtf, seriously. michael phelps fucking deserved what he got, and so did mark spitz. end of story. michael phelps won what he won because of his talent, as did spitz, and it will always be because of that.

  • I prefer Shirley Babashoff over Phelps and Spitz. I remember very well that picture of her on the front page of Swimming World Magazine. Wow. I was in love I guess. I attented every final in Montréal. And she was right about the German swimmers. That was the end of old school swimming.

  • it doesnt matter is phelps used a suit and cap because so does everyone else...

    it was an even field and he still beat spitz

    your arguement is very poor, djbiggmike. mike phelps won his 8 medals fairly and broke 7 world records in 8 events. i'd say that's pretty impressive.

  • Spitz did not use swim cap, shave hair, no special suit and destroyed his opponents and not by a finger nail like phelps, If phelps did not use that NASA suit or swim cap he would not win like he did!!

    And it took 30 years for someone to break spitz record and he needed a NASA suit to do it ROFL phelps the NASA bitch! I feel that suit should not have been used, they should allow steroids then!

    Olympics are not what they used to be, early Olympians BS (Before Steroids) are the BEST period!

  • LOL what next they gonna allow swim fins!

    :)

  • You're forgetting the most important piece of equipment-goggles. Spitz had no goggles. Didn't the goggles fill up and make Phelps have a problem? It seemed like he complained that he couldn't see in one race.

  • yeah but he still won that race

  • spitz doesnt care u retard

  • one thing I gotta hand to Mark is that he and his colleagues of that era did NOT use aeodynamic technology swimsuits. Plus they didnt use swim caps nor did they shave their body hair. Not to take anything away from Michael Phelps, who's THE BEST athlete named Michael (no debate there) but had the Croatian kept stroking instead of floating into the finish we wouldn't be talking about Michael Phelps being the greatest athlete ever. One last thing, didnt Mark DESTROY his opponents as oppose to .01?

  • My dad trained with Spitz. He said Spitz was a dick to him.

  • ya lot of em are phony. but phelps isnt...

  • Yup, Spitz is still the best. No fancy technology or computer specific training. Head to head with today's tech, Mark would beat Phelps.

    Without computers, drugs, and cheating judges; today's athletes are phony.

  • You're the one that is negative. Please be more positive.

    Peace to you.

    Respect Faith

  • Special suit makes no difference. It's still an even playing field because all of Phelp's competitors have the suits as well.

  • No special swimsuit, no deeper/wider pool to smooth out the waves.. no shaved head or face.

    As far as I'm concerned, Spitz's still's the best.

  • "we're sorry, this video is no longer available" I'M GETTING SO SICK OF THIS!!!

  • Both Michael Phelps and Mark Spitz are incredible. I just think it's sad that so many seem to diss Mark Spitz now that Michael won 8.

    Anyway, both are incredible athletes.

    Respect Faith

  • In 72' olimpics games terrorist murded 11 men from Israel's team. They all were JEWS. Mark Spitz is also a JEW. Even that terrorists wanted the jews to fail, they couldn't do something about Spitz. He won.

  • Mark Spitz is a jew. Mybe Michael Phelps also one.

  • phelps!!!!

  • Yes Phelps is great but let us not forget the greatness of Mark Spitz. 7 medals and 7 world records all in one. Wow.

  • Don't worry, his greatness will stand for all time. But it's been 36 years. The world is ready for some new greatness.

  • and a bloody nice moustache

  • Phelps! Spitz!

    Respect, Faith

  • wasnt spitz used to be a doctor or dentist? lol.

  • No. He was going to go dental school but didn't.

  • i think spitz was better han phelp,, now this 8 options , in 1072 there is seven

  • Michael Phelps !! Michael Phelps !!

  • Mark Spitz said it best himself. That he could of won 8 golds if he had 8 events to enter. Back in 1972 there was no 50m freestyle like there is today. If there was then he likely would of won that too.

  • Respect, Faith. Congratulations to Michael Phelps. I'll be a good sport and give him his due.

    It just hurt that he took away part of my childhood with Mark in that knowing him all these years with the record. I love Mark Spitz. I'm not a huge supporter of Michael, but I support him as a person.

    I wish Mark had known about someone challenging his record one day so he could have tried to compete in 1976.

    Anyway, records are meant to be broken. It's a sport. Anyway, love Mark.

  • steroids

  • notany more phelps has just gotten 8 gold medals in the 2008 beijin olympica haha mark

  • Spitz ended his career after this Olympics, is that what Phelps are going to do too?

  • Nope, he said he would quit after the 2012 Olympics. He said he would definitely not race paced 30 years old.

  • i'm glad spitz wasn't there, it would have distracted the media away from the simplicity of focusing on phelps, and made it even more of a cirucs than it was. not that I would have complained if spitz had chosen to come. i just think it probably worked out nicely.

  • It doesn't matter. They both competed against swimmers who had the same technology they did at the time of their amazing achievements. Spitz had a stache, Phelps, a super suit, both are sweet. Point is, competition was equal for the athlete at the time of achievement. Compare medals, not times. No way of telling how fast spitz would have swam in a super suit. Ten bucks says a Borat suit is faster than both the stache and super suit! ;) WowWowWeWow!

  • Catdomeforlife writes "No way of telling how fast spitz would have swam in a super suit".

    Considering that spitz swam without one and won 7 gold medals one would assume what world records he would've shattered if he depended on man made substances to achieve it. So you're right in that respect.

    However, it's silly you would compare natural body hair with man made super suits as technological equals of their generation.

  • total screw job on spitz... not a good reflection on the olympics or the sport of swimming that they cant honor their past greats... spitz, who looks great for his age, shouldve been there, it wouldve been a nice passing of the torch... congrats to phelps, its just sad spitz wasnt invited to add more importance to the great achievement.

  • There is no way Phelps could have won with a mustache like that.

  • it is almost impossible and unnecessary to compare across generations due to the advances in technology and the difference in the level of competition that each faced but it's safe to say that Phelps is the best of his era while Spitz was the best of his... they are both great aquatic athletes

  • phelps broke 7 WRs and 1 OR he has 16 total gold medals and 9 in 1 olympic games

  • Spitz broke SEVEN world records swimming with a moustache and NO goggles. Phelps only broke six, as far as I know.

  • 7 world record 1 olympic record <3

  • oh shut up u fag. he still got 8 gold. more than you'll ever do

  • phelps broke 7.

    and dont forget that everyone that phelps is competing with has no moustache and wears goggles too. sheesh.

    you simply can't compare the two generations in that way.

  • phelps just broke that rexord!!!!!!!!!!

  • MICHAEL GOT 8 NOW!

  • Got to edit the last 10 seconds now.

  • I'm not sure (video's fuzzy), but it looks like they weren't even wearing goggles '72! Actually, I think there's something to be said both for just swimming balls-out with hardly any technology whatsoever, and on the other hand having the ability to apply the newest technology (available to everyone now) to your best advantage to get the gold. It's sort of a 'parallel shift' if you know what I mean. We are all creations of our time and both men are history-making champions in their own right.

  • These were the days of real men swimmers! No head caps.Speedo's and not a body suit! Deeper pools and wave taming lane markers.Extra lanes to help with wake.Not much body shaving then and oh yeh Mustaches!Phelps has done a great job but in the new age of metrosexual men it's just not the same.

  • Of course, if Spitz were swimming today he'd have the suit, the goggles, the different training - likewise if Phelps were living in 1972 he'd be wearing the speedos with no goggles, etc. I presume Johnny Weismuller would say that Spitz had it better than he did in 1924. All are/were great swimming athletes in their day and did the best they could with what they have/had.

  • Yes you are correct on the technology and training changes.I guess that's what makes me a little sad at Spitz going down to Michael.Not that Mark wasn't a superb athlete in those days,but he still[as other athlete's of those days]was kind of closer to a normal guy.These days to win like that they have to leave the realm of normal humans and train to be super humans[not amateur in the way the Olympics started].It was awesome last night and I hope someone interviews Mark with Michael soon.

  • I disagree with you, both Mark and Michael were normal humans. But they both trained probably the most. But to say Michael is super human is ridiculous. He doesn't have 3 arms or 4 legs. He's a normal human like all. It's up to the individual.

    And Mark and Michael both were the leaders when they competed. Respect, Faith.

  • Phelps has extremely long arms.

  • By super human I mean he trains way beyond what Spitz did in his day.I mean by amateur athlete standards.I've had many friends throught the years on the Olympic whitewater team and if they only had to train all day long they wouldn't be amateurs.They had jobs and or College and lead lives like amateur athletes.These days many like Phelps and others do nothing but train and sleep.They don't have to worry about normal living while trying to reach there goal because of sponsors and endorsed monies.

  • They both are normal humans, yes, but Phelps has some genetic advantages, such as having the perfect height of 6'4" and yet the legs of a 6'0" man but the upper body of a man that is 6'8", as well as double jointed knees and elbows. He's not superhuman, but he does have a biological advantage once you study how his body is constructed. You can almost make the argument that he was born to dominate in swimming.

  • Interesting analysis. I'm not Spitz's doctor but I suspect he was probably a freak too.

  • Both are incredible athletes. I'm sure both have physical and mental attributes that give them the advantage.

    Respect Faith

  • I watched each of Spitz' medal wins back in 1972. Even through the troubled Olympics, Spitz pulled through convincingly. I hope Michael Phelps wins too, but I'd wish he'd ditch the mommy's boy image just a little bit.

  • It's the media that gives him the "mommy's boy image" It's not his fault that the cameras cut to his mother in the stands after every win and if all these other swimmers are getting beat by a so called mother's boy what does that make them?

  • The manner in which the easter bloc officials managed the Munich Games, it's surprising Mark Spitz didn't obtain a few false starts (remembering the basketball shenanigans and the Pole Vault incident/Bob Seagren not being allowed to use the pole he had been using in all the international competitions. Of course, everything, including Spitz and the great freestyle wrestler Dan Gable's amazing gold performace was overshadowed by the terrorist attack that killed eleven Israeli athletes.

  • i went to the same high school as he did

  • Does anyone know who is shaking Spitz's hand at around 1:36?

  • That's Vladimir Bure.

  • Thanks! I didn't expect anyone to ever answer my question!

  • lol, I saw todays 100m butterfly, Phelps won by like 0.01s. too bad for Cavic

  • No matter how awesome Phelps is in the present Olympics, I think Mr Spitz was the greatest.

  • Why because he was first?

    What does it take to better than Spitz then?

    Don't get me wrong he i/was fantastic and will always be regarded as such, but if (maybe, don't know yet) 8 gold medals compared to 7 isn't greater then what is? What does it take?

  • Perhaps Spitz achieved this feat earlier than Phelps and its like inventing light bulbs...Edison invented it and became great while nobody can ever achieved it again as it was done long ago...Even if Phelps achieved this feat...He is great in his own world...which is 2008...Spitz is great in 1972...