Rider's legends: Mark Spitz

Mark Spitz cuts through the Munich pool leaving the rest in his wake

BBC Olympics presenter Steve Rider highlights some of the great Olympians from the pages of history.

In the Olympics of 1972 the swimming pool belonged to one man whose drive, ambition and sheer single-mindedness propelled him to a record medal haul.

At Munich, the 22-year-old American Mark Spitz set out in a quest to win seven gold medals. Eight days later he was celebrating a clean sweep.

He had won two golds, a silver and bronze four years earlier in Mexico but that proved to be just a taster of what this phenomenal swimmer could achieve.

For the record, Spitz took gold in the 100 and 200m freestyle, the 100 and 200m butterfly, the 4x100 and 4x200 freestyle relays and the 4x100 medley relay.

A 17-year-old with a golden future

As a youngster, Spitz's father had prophetically told him that 'swimming isn't everything - winning is'.

In 1972, despite an exhausting programme of 13 races in a little over a week, Spitz kept on winning and winning.

Standards

Yet, such were the almost impossibly high standards Spitz set himself, he was concerned about returning to America with regrets, even after he had five golds in the bank.

The 100m freestyle was his sixth final and yet so much hinged on it for Spitz.

"It was the last of the four individual events, it was the sixth gold medal and on paper it was the event where I had the least amount of margin to win by," he recalled 28 years on.

"But the anguish and the torment I had to go through was overwhelming.

"Obviously I was having a great week. I had trained correctly and rested properly but the whole week of actually competing was starting to wear on me physically and emotionally.

"It was also the most rewarding medal because the 100m freestyle was known as the glamour event.

"If I hadn't won I would have not been known as the fastest swimmer in the world. There were 15 different swimming events and if I had won 14, whoever else won that event would have been recognised as the fastest swimmer."

Pace

He need not have worried. Despite a strong challenge from fellow American Jerry Heidenreich, Spitz, who had decided with his coach to set the pace, held on.

"I'd rather die and lose from being in front then have too much left and not planned the execution of my management of the swim in time to come from behind," he said.

"So I took off and it hurt. The last 20 metres were monumentally difficult."

Each gold was like another act in a play

  Mark Spitz

Spitz duly competed his golden seven the next day but admitted that during his amazing run there was no time to reflect and rejoice.

"Each time was like another act in a play. The curtain had not come down yet on the performance and I needed to sleep soundly and not get too excited about what had just happened because I had get up in the morning and go through the ritual again, and I had to do that for eight days in a row."

There was also little time for Spitz to bathe in the glory once he had swam his last race.

The next morning, the world's attention was on the Arab terrorist attack on the Israeli team, which culminated to the murder of 11 athletes.

Fears

Fearing for the safety of the Jewish Spitz, the US Olympic Committee and State Department advised him to return home to California.

"It was a very uncertain time. No-one was sure if there was any other terrorists running around in the village.

No-one could believe this could have happened. Everyone was dumbfounded."

Although Spitz trained as a dentist, he says his time since retiring has been devoted to his family and business interests. He still swims in Masters events in California.