Mark Spitz

International Swimming Hall of Fame board of directors including Mark Spitz, Donna de Varona and Bruce Wigo

Mark Spitz is Chairman Emeritus of the International Swimming Hall of Fame and for six years, beginning in 1966, the dominant figure in the sport of swimming. At the 1972 Olympic Games, held in Munich, West Germany, he gave one of the most dominating athletic performances in Olympic history, winning seven gold medals with each of his medal-winning performances broke a world swimming record. Since his retirement from competitive swimming he has gone on to successful careers as both a businessman and motivational speaker. Today, he remains the most widely recognized swimming personality in the world.

Mark was born the first of three children in Modesto, California to parents Arnold and Lenore Spitz. At age two, his family moved to Hawaii and he swam almost every day at Waikiki Beach. When Mark was just six years old, he began to compete at his local swim club. A few years later at the tender age of nine, he trained at Arden Hills Swim Club in Sacramento with Sherm Chavoor, the swimming coach who mentored him and six other Olympic medal winners. Before he was 10, Spitz held 17 national age-group records, and one world record. His family moved again when he was 14 years old, this time to train under George F. Haines of the Santa Clara Swim Club. During his four years there, Mark held national high school records in every stroke and in every distance. It was an unprecedented achievement.

Open Water Swimming

Spitz was the official host of the Samsung Bosphorus Cross Continental Swimming Race (Boğazıçi Kitalararasi Yarislari) in 2012.

External links

• Sweet 16.  Tough Distance Freestyle Workouts In The Lead-up To The 1976 Montreal Olympics
• Doc Counsilman Helped Usher In An Increasingly Graying Trend In Channel Swimming
• How Times Have Changed From 1962 To The Present
• The Swimming Evolution – From Briefs To Jammers
• Jim McConica Reminisces About His Swimming Career On WOWSA Live
• Mark Spitz 9-Time Olympic Gold Medalist
• Dr. David Smith, The Original Most Interesting Man In The World
• Marathon Swimming Hall Of Famers At The Olympics
• International Swimming Hall of Fame
• John Goodbody On An Open Water Swimming Icon, Thomas Watch
• 50 Is New 30, 60 Is The New 40 In The Open Water
• Dealing With Pain And Celebrating Life
• One Of The Most Amazing 100m Freestyles In The World
• Do Masters Rules Rule Or What In Open Water Butterfly?
• What Makes Great Swimmers?
• The Swimming Evolution - From Briefs To Jammers
• Bosphorus Cross-Continental Swim / Boğazıçi Kitalararasi Yarislari Official Website
• Adam Walker Hosts, Bertuğ Coşkun Wins Samsung Bosphorus Cross Continental Swim
• Jorge Delgado Before Heading To The Open Water
• Guests Start Samsung Bosphorus Cross Continental Swim
• Swimming Safely Across The Bosphorus
• Citius - Altius - Fortius At Any Cost, At All Costs
• The Roads Crossed By Régent Lacoursière
• Pure And Simple, A Silver Lining For Alexander Popov