On the 50th anniversary of one of the greatest performances in Olympic history, Mark Spitz reflects on the nine days in Munich that changed his life.
At the 1972 Olympics he won seven gold medals and broke seven world records before retiring at age 22. The day after his last gold he was involved in the tragedy of the Israeli hostage crisis that ended with the killing of six coaches, five athletes and a German policeman at the hands of Palestinian terrorists from the Black September group.
A historic sporting achievement and the darkest chapter in Olympic history. Spitz reflected on the mixed emotions he experienced in Germany, and how his work as a founding member of the Laureus Academy became part of the legacy he celebrates this anniversary.
“50 years ago, less than 24 hours after winning my seventh Olympic gold, I was caught up in the confusion and horror of the deaths of 11 Israeli athletes.Spitz said. “That day the biggest sporting event turned into a massacre and turned my view of sport upside down. It took 50 years for me to say that I now understand the true inspiration and power of sport.”
No champion has gone out as dramatically as Mark Spitz in his final swimming gold medal.. After winning four individual golds (100 and 200-meter butterfly, 100 and 200-meter freestyle) and three more in team relays (4×100 and 4×200-meter freestyle, 4×100-meter medley), an exhausted Spitz was carried to dinner for two journalists. Unbeknownst to him, at the same time he returned home in the middle of the night, eight members of the Black September terrorist group entered the Olympic Village.
Spitz didn’t know the news yet when he walked into what he thought was a press conference on his accomplishments that morning. Because the seven-time champion was Jewish, it was feared that he might become a target and Spitz was soon secretly whisked away to safety with an armed escort.
He himself remembers it: “After the press conference I was sitting in the Olympic Village, in my room, watching television and there was the constant comment: ‘We believe that Mark Spitz, who finished his swimming program, was evacuated and is in Italy’. About 20 minutes later: ‘No, that information is wrong, it’s somewhere in Sweden.’ I don’t know if they said that to mislead people, because I was still in the room at the Olympic Village. It took some time to come up with a definite plan.
“They put me and my coach in the back seat of a car and told me to get out and put a blanket on me. After about five minutes they told me to sit down, and they took us to the airport and then we got on a plane to London.”.
“When we got to London they put an armed escort at my door all night. Before we went to bed, he said to me: ‘It’s dangerous to be around you.'”
“I said, ‘Well, I was actually thinking the same thing about you.'”
“We didn’t know what was happening in Germany. When we woke up in the morning, the escort told us what happened: in the afternoon, everything happened at the military base, where the other athletes were killed.”
A failed ambush at an airport resulted in the deaths of all the remaining hostages, a policeman from the Federal Republic of Germany and five of the terrorists. The link between Spitz’s Olympic history and the Israeli team has survived half a century.
“Thirteen years later, I had the opportunity to meet several wives of athletes who were killed while I was in Israel and two of their children., and there are reasons for the bond with me: one, that I am a Jew; and secondly, his parents were with me at the Olympics.”
“It’s a terrible tragedy, not only for the athletes but for the Olympic movement and for the families in particular. We’re still talking about it today.”
Spitz also highlighted the mental health challenge facing today’s champions. He said that if he had been given the option to continue in the elite sport beyond the Munich Games in 1972, instead of retiring at the age of 22, he, too, would have found it difficult to maintain such dedicated focus without facing the same thing. Problems.
In recent years, athletes such as Naomi Osaka, Ben Stokes and Chloe Kim have withdrawn from competition to protect their mental health. With a strict amateur code in place in 1972, Spitz saw no alternative but to retire. And this, according to one of the founding members of the Laureus Academy, is one of the reasons why he can now return to his Olympic victories after 50 healthy and happy years outside the pool.
“Athletes who have had great success get on the podium and are admired and respected,” Spitz said. “And 15 minutes later, they walk off into the sunset. And the hard part, walk off into the sunset, because moments like this will never happen again. No one will recognize you and put you on the podium for achieving your goal. [fuera del deporte]”.
“I’ve never experienced the kinds of things that we see some athletes go through, but I haven’t had those opportunities. [de competir profesionalmente]. I think I would have experienced something similar if there had been professionalism in my sport and that would have contributed to me continuing to compete beyond the age of 22″.
Spitz showed his admiration for David Popovici, the Romanian freestyle sensation who broke the 100-meter freestyle world record at age 17, the same age Spitz was when he set his first world record.
Now that the Olympics will be held in Los Angeles again in 2028, Spitz believes the boy still has the enormous capacity to go even faster.
“He’s a great swimmer and he’s a great sprinter. My coach, George Haines, told me when I broke my first world record, ‘You just went from hunter to hunted.’ Now he is [Popovici] he wants to be caught by others.”
“He reminds me that his body is not fully formed from a strength point of view. He swims freestyle and that is a test of strength, I can’t imagine what he can do. I am happy for him and not I’ll be happy if I’m racing with him: turn off the light, because he just came out on the left, gone!
“He’s 17 now, he’ll be 19 at the next Olympics and only 23 when the Olympics return to Los Angeles in 2028. He could even go to Brisbane.”
Spitz was one of the inaugural members of the Laureus Academy and sees his work with Laureus Sport for Good programs around the world as a critical part of the legacy he celebrates on this anniversary.
“It’s not about making Olympians, although that can happen,” he said. “It’s about giving a chance to people who don’t have it.”
Source: La Verdad
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