Beijing - Mark Spitz won an unprecedented seven Olympic gold
medals at one Games 1972 in Munich - a record that still stands.
Thirty-six years later another American is hoping to not only
emulate Spitz' achievement, Michael Phelps wants to go one better -
winning eight gold medals to take his personal tally to 14 gold and
two bronze.
Spitz, whose total tally is nine gold, one silver and one bronze,
told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that he believes the 23-year-old can
do it.
'He has a big chance. He has the same pressure I had. In Munich I
participated in four individual events in which I had the world
record and the American relays were overwhelming favourites to win as
well because they held the world record.
'I personally was expecting to win the seven gold medals.
'Phelps is in a similar situation. He will participate in five
individual events, in four of them he's the world record holder. Even
though he is not the world record holder in the fifth event, the 100m
butterfly, he has not lost against Ian Crocker, who holds the record,
for four years.
'And the relays are usually pretty strong. If you look at the
possibilities, it looks pretty good that he can win all the eight.'
Spitz said that he would have no problems if Phelps broke his
record. 'Somebody told me once that greatness is a matter of measure
by which others judge themselves. Therefore it's a compliment for me.
'I say to him: 'Break all the records including mine'. I'm very
happy for him. If he gets it, it will be a great day for the sport,
for the Olympic movement and he will become the most important thing
for the television.'
The 58-year-old Spitz, who now works as a corporate spokesperson
and motivational speaker, said that he believes Phelps could push
swimming to the top of Olympic sports.
'If you take a survey of normal people on the street and you say
to them: 'Give the name of one Olympic medal winner from Athens
2004', they won't remember anybody, but if they do give a name, it
would be Phelps because he won six gold medals.
'Athletics was really in the back seat in Athens and it will be
the same this time because then Phelps was halfway successful. If he
wins seven gold medals and ties me or even eight gold medals he will
overshadow everything.'
He believes there is a huge difference between swimming in 1972
and now.
'The difference is the way they train. Today swimmers know how to
go to a place for doing cross training or how to use a machine and
that's very important to develop a group of muscles.
'They have the knowledge to know what they have to develop for the
100m butterfly. That's why they are stronger and taller, because tall
swimmers were always around in my days, but they were not strong
enough to show their strength in the water.
'Now the best swimmers are tall. The big boats are faster than the
small ones but they need the energy. Now the tall swimmers have more
strength and energy.'
The two-time father, who married a year after Munich, is
dismissive of all the talk about Speedo's wonder-suit LZR Racer,
which has been said to be the reason why so many world records have
been broken this year.
'It's a waste of time. You need to swim at 6 miles an hour to
break the drag. There are only 10 swimmers in the world that can swim
at 6 miles per hour.
'100m freestylers probably get the benefit of it. If you really
think that that swim suit is making Phelps faster, than that would
mean that everybody who wears that suit will swim so fast.
'If I wear the golf clothes of Tiger Woods, am I going to play
like he does?
'Every Olympic year, every athlete targets training very hard and
they break records. That's the only way to go to the Olympic Games.
That happens because of the Olympic year and it wouldn't matter if
Phelps wore that suit or another one.'
He says that it would not have made a difference to him if he had
had a similar suit available when he was swimming. 'Winning medals,
it's just the same. Believe me, it's not the suit.
'In comparison with my suits and the suits they wear today they
look better and maybe technically they can be a little bit better.
But everybody wear the same thing, so there is no advantage.'
Spitz, who lives in Los Angeles and still trains three times a
week with the Masters at the University of California, said he is
looking forward to working as a columnist.
'I've doing something similar before at the Olympic Games. It's
giving me a voice, it's enjoyable. I'm happy that my opinion is read
all over the world.
'I think I have something that would be enlighteninginformatively.
It's not a question of knowing the things better. I just have my
opinion about the things based on my experience,' he told dpa.
USA
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