| 1 | 1 | | He glides through the water, effortlessly keeping up with the 20 or so college kids, |
| 2 | | most of whom hadn't made their first splash in a backyard paddling pool when the tall, |
| 3 | | tanned man in lane eight of the swimming pool was earning his place in history as the |
| 4 | | greatest Olympian of all time. |
| 2 | 5 | | At Munich's Schwimhalle in 1972, Mark Spitz was perfection: seven gold medals, |
| 6 | | and seven world records, in seven attempts. Today he's 39 years old and back in the pool, |
| 7 | | convinced he can do the impossible one more time. At the 1992 Olympic Games in |
| 8 | | Barcelona, when he'll be 42, Spitz wants to swim for the United States. What's more, |
| 9 | | Spitz wants the gold medal in the 100 metres butterfly. |
| 3 | 10 | | If it was anyone else it would be laughable, but it's Spitz and nobody's laughing. |
| 11 | | 'I've heard comments from some coaches who have boys in the 100m butterfly,' he grins . |
| 12 | | 'They're saying, "Oh boy, why did he have to pick my event." My reaction is, "Hey |
| 13 | | fellas, that 's my event. I was swimming it before your guys were born - literally".' |
| 4 | 14 | | 'It's the challenge of a lifetime,' he says. What he means is that for the first time in |
| 15 | | his life he doesn't have to win to prove his point. This is not the Mark Spitz of old. This |
| 16 | | is not a bit like the arrogant, aggressive 22-year-old who ruthlessly swept aside the |
| 17 | | opposition in Munich. Then he hardly spoke at all and when he did, it was about |
| 18 | | winning. Driven on by his ambitious father, he was determined to make history. |
| 19 | | 'Swimming isn't everything, winning is,' Arnold Spitz once said. 'I never said to him, |
| 20 | | "You're second, that's great." I told him I didn't care about winning age groups, I cared |
| 21 | | for world records.' |
| 5 | 22 | | Mark's swimming plans have been the subject of constant guesswork among family |
| 23 | | and friends. Believing that a comeback would only harm his career, he never seriously |
| 24 | | considered the idea . Then he started to hear about remarkable happenings in America's |
| 25 | | Masters Swimming Programme. Former champions, men of 50 or more, were getting |
| 26 | | back into training and beating the best times they had ever achieved. |
| 6 | 27 | | Spitz wasn't interested in swimming against the veterans but a return to the big |
| 28 | | stage was suddenly looking a much better prospect. 'What's been happening in the |
| 29 | | Masters over the past few years makes me 100 per cent certain that in nine months or a |
| 30 | | year I'll be swimming faster than I did in Munich,' he says. |
| 7 | 31 | | 'I've talked to some experts and they all agree that I would have swum much faster |
| 32 | | in 1972 if I hadn't had to swim so many events,' says Spitz. 'I set that 100m butterfly time |
| 33 | | on the fifth day of competition. I was already tired. Also, I was trained as a long-distance |
| 34 | | swimmer. Now I'm going to train properly as a sprinter and use weights to improve my |
| 35 | | upper body strength. Both things will make me faster.' |
| 8 | 36 | | A couple of months ago he went to see coach Tom Ballatore, who invited him to |
| 37 | | join a team training session. It's now a regular arrangement. "The first thing is to get him |
| 38 | | into shape,' says Ballatore. Tm pretty happy with him. His attitude is excellent - as |
| 39 | | might have been expected from the greatest swimmer who ever lived.' Ballatore says it's |
| 40 | | too early to speculate about Spitz's chances of getting to Barcelona, though. He reckons |
| 41 | | he will have to swim a full second or more faster than the Munich time to earn a place in |
| 42 | | the American team. |
| 9 | 43 | | Spitz is clearly tom between his old arrogant self and a more modest, realistic |
| 44 | | approach. 'I guess I know better than almost anyone what it takes to be motivated to win. |
| 45 | | I have that imprinted like a computer chip in my mind. Unfortunately, it's a mind |
| 46 | | controlling a 39-year-old body and we're not quite sure how that body will react. I'll tell |
| 47 | | you what, though. It sure does put a little excitement back into life.' |
| | | |
| | | from 'You', January 7, 1990 |
