In the Olympic games, Mark Spitz was once the name to beat, not only in swimming,
but for Olympic gold in general. Now in his 70s, the former swimming star has kept busy
in the years since the Munich Olympics. This is what happened to USA swimming star Mark Spitz.
Mark Spitz, the record-setting athlete, held the distinction
of winning the most Olympic gold medals in a single Olympic games,
winning seven for swimming in the 1972 Munich Olympics. He held onto that record for 36 years
until Michael Phelps dethroned him with eight gold medal wins in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
In fact, Spitz didn't simply win seven golds in the 1972 Munich Olympics — in every one of
those events, he also set seven world records that would hold strong for 36 years as well.
Over his Olympic swimming career, he won nine gold medals in total, and until the rise of Michael
Phelps, he was tied with a few other Olympians for the most gold medals received by a single athlete.
His feats were like nothing the world had ever seen before, and even though he has relinquished
the record of most medals won at one Olympic games, he's perfectly fine with it, telling CNN,
"The bottom line is, records are made to be broken."
While Mark Spitz was training in the pool with dreams of Olympic gold,
he always had another career in mind to pursue after the Olympics: dentistry.
A life of working with people's teeth might not seem particularly glorious compared
to the former Olympian's athletic career, but it was the life he apparently wanted,
until fancier possibilities started to sparkle on the horizon.
According to Swimming World Magazine,
Spitz indefinitely postponed his dental school ambitions to try his hand at an acting career.
It didn't go particularly well. The swimmer-turned-thespian's IMDb page says it all,
showing him as having a total of five acting credits. In 1972, he was an uncredited guest
performer on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, and in 1974, he was featured in a single episode of
"Emergency!" In the 80s, he played an announcer in the sports-themed TV movie "Challenge of a
Lifetime," and in 2014, he appeared as himself in a voiceover cameo on an episode of "American Dad!"
"Hi, I'm the chancellor of this university. I'm also Olympic gold medallist Mark Spitz."
He also narrated the 2006 documentary "Freedom's Fury," produced in part by
Lucy Liu and Quentin Tarantino, which chronicled the climactic "Blood in the
Water" water polo match between the USSR and Hungary at the 1956 Olympic games in Melbourne.
After his retirement from sports, the world record-setting swimmer was a bit all over the
place career-wise. We already discussed the acting career, but there were a few other,
mundane ventures in there, too, and some of them were fairly successful.
In between numerous endorsement deals and TV commentary gigs for swim meets, Mark Spitz grew
his wealth as a real estate developer and investor with the SUMARK Corporation, named for him and his
wife Susan. As an investor and developer, Spitz pursued real estate in California, Texas, and the
beautiful islands of Hawaii, amassing a small fortune despite being self-taught in business.
Another career Spitz dove into was public speaking. As a successful athlete and
charismatic speaker, it only seemed natural. He also had enough endorsement offers coming his
way that he reportedly turned many down, instead living off of his investments.
Mark Spitz is also listed as working with the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation,
as a founding member of the Laureus World Sports Academy.
The organization has a stated goal of using sports as a way to help transform the lives
of young people through awards, education, and development programs in 40 different countries.
"We basically give opportunity. We give chance,
we give inspiration to athletes and kids that never had a chance."
Just because Mark Spitz retired from the world of professional swimming doesn't mean he's taken
himself out of the water for good. He's no longer competing in swimming competitions,
but according to Swimming World Magazine, he still has great form, and has shown off his
ability to swim across his pool with a glass of water balanced on his head. But the swimming pool
isn't where Spitz's most recent aquatic hobby's been taking place. This time, he's in the ocean.
Spitz went from the professional USA Swimming team
in his youth to professional sailor in his retirement.
According to the New York Times, Spitz bought his first racing yacht a year after the Olympics in
Munich, and he hasn't lost his taste for the wind and waves of the untamed ocean.
And he's not just a mere hobbyist. He's completed an event called the TransPacific
Yacht Race, a 2,500-mile journey from San Pedro, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii, several times.
In September 2019, Mark Spitz posted a message spreading awareness for atrial fibrillation to
his Twitter account, because it was a condition with which he'd recently been diagnosed.
Atrial fibrillation isn't one of the more deadly heart arrhythmias, especially if
it's caught early and properly treated, but it can be a serious danger if it goes undiagnosed.
According to the Mayo Clinic, atrial fibrillation is an irregular heartbeat
that originates in the upper part of the heart,
causing the atria to beat rapidly and chaotically. Since your atria are out of coordination with
your ventricles, the lower portion of your heart doesn't fill up like it's supposed to.
Luckily, this is usually easily treated. The major risk factor
from the disease comes from an increased chance of blood clots,
which can then go on to cause ischemia, heart attacks, pulmonary embolisms, or strokes.
Even though the former Olympian has developed this fairly common condition,
he seems to be doing pretty well for himself in his 70s. He's likely to be around for a long time,
and by raising awareness about early treatment for the illness, it seems he wants you to be too.
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