Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Quote of the Day/Week- Mark Spitz




Today, we continue to quote American athletes who won medals at the Olympics; next week, we will start quoting international athletes though we suspect it will be very difficult to find a quote from Turkish weightlifter Naim Suleymanolgu, aka The Pocket Hercules, who won gold in three different Olympics.

But, we were able to find a good quip from swimmer Mark Spitz, 62, who actually won nine gold medals over two Olympics. After winning two team gold medals at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, Spitz literally made a good splash when he won seven gold medals at the 1972 Munich Olympics; that record held until another American swimmer Michael Phelps won eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The major achievement by Spitz, who is Jewish, was sadly overshadowed by the kidnapping and murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics.

Here is the quote from Spitz:

"I just tried to keep my cool and continue with my race plan: to win."

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