Explore Quotes by Mark Spitz

If he wins seven golds and ties what I did, then it would be like I was the first man on the moon and he became the second. If he wins more than seven, then he becomes the first man on Mars. We'd both be unique.

The memories of the Munich games for me are of triumph and tragedy.

I am not qualified to talk about the diet. Simply because I am not a dietician.

All things being equal, if we could simulate the same scenario, he has a lot more difficult task. He's elected to swim six individual events, as opposed to what I elected to do, which was four.

What it is saying is that someone who was a world champion and who takes care of himself with a 17-year rest and applies the proper training techniques and perseverance could be successful.

When I went to the Olympics, I had every intention of shaving the mustache off, but I realized I was getting so many comments about it - and everybody was talking about it - that I decided to keep it.

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

The pool is terrible, but that doesn't have much to do with my record swims. That's all mental attitude.

Yes, I believe that the art of winning is through intimidation, and not necessarily do you have to speak about it.

Life is true to form, records are meant to be broken

As a kid, chess was the first thing I studied in a structured way that helped me gain the discipline to study medicine and become successful doctor.

Well my thoughts on American swimming are that our prospects look favorable, but we may not have as strong a showing in the gold medal count as in previous Olympics. But I am not coaching

In everyday life there is always manana. There is no urgency

There are times I might coach one or two workouts a year when the regular coach gets caught in traffic

In my day, at 12 years old, which was 38 years ago, we worked out in summer months for two and a half hours. Today someone in that age group might work out for four hours, two hours in the morning and two at night

When I went to the Olympics, I had every intention of shaving the moustache off, but I realized I was getting so many comments about it — and everybody was talking about it — that I decided to keep it.

I'm at the depot, and I'm not going anywhere. That's better to deal with than having to deal with the unknown. And the unknown is they don't want to fail. They don't want to pay the price unless there's a guarantee they're going to get there

My biggest loss was the Olympics. I just can't forget losing. I never will

One of the most difficult things for people who have been successful in sports is adapting to the daily world where you can't get an answer from someone until 5 o'clock tomorrow. There is always an excuse. Living 40 or 50 years like that doesn't get too exciting after a while

Past performance speaks a tremendous amount about one's ability and likelihood for success.

So in my mind I own a lot of house records still