His splendid black mustache—a reminder to all those meticulously shorn
and shaved adversaries in the pool that Mark Spitz didn't
have to
sacrifice fashion to be the best—is long gone. "I
tried growing it back, but it
was so gray, it looked ridiculous," says Spitz,
chuckling. That's not the only
sign that the golden boy of the 1972 Munich Olympics is now
47. Spitz is 20 pounds heavier than in his prime. He has
two screws in his left leg (from a skiing accident), and
his back is arthritic. But 25 years ago Spitz
was perfect. Seven races. Seven gold medals. Seven world
records. No one
has dominated an Olympics the way he did that summer. Add
the four medals Spitz won at the Mexico City Games four
years earlier, and he shares with Matt Biondi the record
for career Olympic swimming medals.
Retiring after the '72 Games, Spitz became the first
athlete to make a huge post-Olympic splash with corporate
America. His endorsement
contracts were estimated to be worth $5 million. He
appeared on television
specials with Bob Hope, Bill Cosby and Sonny and Cher. A
poster of the mustachioed, rakishly handsome Spitz, posing
in just his red-white-and-blue swimsuit and seven gold
medals, became the most popular-selling poster of a sports
figure. "I'm a
commodity, an endorser," Spitz said then. The sentiment was
typical of his blunt and often brazen honesty. In '83 Spitz
called the National Sports Festival a "joke" and
"an exercise in futility." Jay Bernstein, Spitz's
press agent following the '72 Games, once
said, "Mark hasn't learned the art of talking and saying
nothing."
Today Spitz lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Suzy (who
appeared with him on his third and final SI cover the week
of their 1973 marriage), and their sons, Matthew, 15, and
Justin, 5. He still follows a hectic, eclectic schedule, as
he did in Munich,
investing in real estate, serving as spokesman for SmarTalk
Teleservices, a phone card company, and giving motivational
speeches. The waterproof Mark Spitz model Swatch watch was
the best seller of the company's recent Centennial Olympic
line.
After failing in his much-publicized attempt to make a
comeback and qualify for the '92 Olympics in the 100-meter
butterfly, Spitz stopped swimming for three months. He is
now back in the pool, working out with the UCLA masters
swim team. "I squeak,
rattle and roll," he says. But the biggest difference
between the mature Spitz and his brash younger self lies in
his relaxed enjoyment of the sport. "I have a whole
different mission now," says Spitz. "I enjoy the
camaraderie."
—by Merrell Noden
photograph by Heinz Kluetmeier
Past Editions of Catching Up With...
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