In 1968, Mark Spitz promised his fans that he would bring home no fewer than six gold medals from the Mexico City Olympics. Instead, the swashbuckling swimmer took silver in the 100-meter butterfly, bronze in the 100-meter freestyle and two gold medals in his team relay events.
Meanwhile, he came in last in the 200-meter butterfly and didn’t win any solo race.
His take? He could do better.
“I considered myself a failure,” Spitz, now 65, told IBD from his home in Los Angeles.
Still, he knew that worrying about drowned dreams was a waste of time. So he focused his goggles on 1972 and the Munich Games.
