On September 4, 1972, in a pool in Munich, Germany, an American swimmer named Mark Spitz climbed out of the water for the seventh time in a week and lifted his goggles. He had just won his seventh gold medal of the Olympics, and not one of them was a slow win. He had set a new world record in every single race. Photographers shouted his name and reporters scribbled the number that no swimmer had ever reached before.
Spitz was 22 years old, with a thick mustache that other swimmers said was crazy because facial hair slows you down. He swam the 100 and 200 meter freestyle, the 100 and 200 meter butterfly, and three relay races where he led teams of Americans to gold. His mustache, far from slowing him down, became so famous that the Soviet swim coach asked him about it. Spitz joked that the mustache deflected water away from his mouth and let him swim downhill. The next year, every male swimmer on the Soviet team showed up with a mustache.
For 36 years his record of seven golds in one Olympics seemed impossible to beat. Then in 2008 in Beijing, another American swimmer named Michael Phelps grabbed eight, with Spitz himself watching from the stands and cheering. Spitz's record reshaped the Olympics by showing the world how thrilling swimming could be on television, and the sport has been a marquee event at every Games since.
