Mark Spitz

4 Stories

Spitz Starts Life as Second-Greatest

1972 Olympic champ stays gracious after record falls to Phelps

(Newser) - Outspoken and prickly in the best of times, Mark Spitz is slowly adjusting to being the second-greatest Olympian of all time, the Wall Street Journal reports. Mustering a little grace for the occasion, Spitz says he's relieved at the downgrade. "He's got the burden of inspiring the youth as...

Phelps Pulls a Spitz on Sports Illustrated Cover

Swimmer mimics iconic shot of Olympian whose record he broke

(Newser) - Michael Phelps now has "the picture" to match his record Olympic medal haul, the New York Daily News reports. Sports Illustrated features a grinning, medal-clad, bare-chested Phelps on the cover of its issue out tomorrow, a shot that mimics the mag's iconic 1972 photo of Mark Spitz. "This...

How Phelps Saved the Games
 How Phelps Saved the Games
OPINION
Aug 18, 2008 7:43 AM CDT

How Phelps Saved the Games

Swimmer inspired America to love the games again

(Newser) - If the Chinese invented organized sports 6,000 years ago, writes Pat Forde on ESPN.com, then how appropriate that Michael Phelps came to Beijing to prove he was “the apotheosis of the athlete.” And America knows it. In a year when the Olympics had become “passe,...

Phelps' Winning Personality Separates Him From Spitz

Golden-boy swimmers are only similar in the pool

(Newser) - Michael Phelps has passed Mark Spitz's record number of career gold medals, and is dead set on eclipsing the seven golds Spitz won in Munich in 1972. But apart from their metal preferences the two men are very different people, observes the New York Times. The detached Spitz matched his...

4 Stories