Mark Spitz tries to give competition confidence in a nutshell

Press, 11 October 1979, Page 40

Mark Spitz tries to give competition confidence in a nutshell

Mark Spitz, the former Olympic swimming champion, is disappointed that he did not get the op« portunity to raise some money for the New Zealand Olympic swimming team during his short stay in this country.

A Christchurch dinner scheduled for last evening was cancelled because of lack of patronage and a similar dinner in Auckland on Tuesday evening ran at a slight loss. But the dinners were only secondary to' Spitz's main reason for vis-! iting New Zealand. He is promoting swimwear for Arena and holding clinics with New Zealand swimmers. Asked if he took the poor response to the dinners personally he said: "1 might I have a few years ago. but not now. When I wasj presented with the possibility of helping your swim- ■ ming team I felt proud to ; help, but unfortunately it hasn't worked out.” It was probably a relief for Spitz and his wife. Susy, that the Christchurch dinner was cancelled. He had a hec-' 1 tic day yesterday, leaving Auckland at 8 a.m. to fly to , Invercargill for store promotions and clinics with swimmers. , He later had a rough flight to Dunedin in galeforce southerly winds and, after a further round of pro- ' motions, returned to Christ- 1 church where he was ob- 1 viously glad of the free’ 1 evening. He will be at the Wha-.i renui pool at 7.30 this morn- i ing for another clinic fol-b lowed by further store pro- : motions. In his clinics with Newh

Zealand's budding young swimmers he has been attempting to impart the motivation that won him seven gold medals in the Munich Olympics in 1972. Four of the medals were from individual events and three from ! relays. In all four individual events Spitz set world records and his 100 m butterfly record was not broken until two years ago. The’ new record-holder. Joe Bottom. is the only man to have bettered Spitz’s Munich time. "I try and relate to the swimmers to stimulate their self-confidence and tell them 'how I prepared myself for big races." "I also explain the techniques of swimming when I was a competitor and what ■they do today. I try and put .everything in a nutshell and tell them the only way to improve is to emulate those who are better than you.” As a competitoi at Mun- ■ ich in 1972 Spitz said he felt tremendous pressure on him. A few weeks earlier he won the same four individual events he won at Munich in the American trials at Chicago, also in world record times. At Chicago however the events were over in four days, but in Munich the is wimming programme stretched over eight days I and one of Spitz’s biggest I worries was whether he i

could cope with the pressure over such a period. But once the swimming was over he found he had even more problems. He was hounded by the news media.

“Suddenly everyone expected me to be a spokesman on world affairs o'f every kind. I wasn’t very opinionated then and took a middle of the road stand. Perhaps that was my biggest mistake.” For up to two years after Munich. Spitz found himself under pressure from many points. At one stage soon after Munich he was receiv-i ing 10.000 letters a day —! all of which were replied to I through an agency. “I still receive letters j addressed to: Mark Spitz, California. 1 open the letters! and they are written in ’ French or German.” His highly competitive [ days are over. Now he’ ; swims occasionally and jogs'' to keep fit and also enjoys: racing in ocean yachts. ’ ;l In spite of the dis-! appointment of the cancella-j tion of the celebrity dinner!! in New Zealand Spitz would i like to return for a vacation I 1 and try some of New Zea- ! land’s hunting, fishing and:! ski-ing.