📍Santa Clara, California, USA
1964 – 1968“Mark Spitz was born in Modesto, California, in February 1950, and when he was two his family moved to Honolulu, where he swam at Waikiki Beach every day; his mother recalled him dashing into the ocean fearlessly. When he was six they returned to California, settling in Sacramento, where he took his first swimming lessons at the YMCA and, at nine, began training at the Arden Hills Swim Club under coach Sherm Chavoor, who became a lifelong mentor. By ten he held seventeen national age-group records. His father, Arnold, a steel company executive, was intensely ambitious for him, famously telling him that swimming isn't everything, winning is. When Mark was fourteen, in 1964, his father moved the family to Santa Clara, a growing town in the orchards and suburbs south of San Francisco, so that Mark could train with George Haines at the famous Santa Clara Swim Club, the best in the country; his father commuted more than eighty miles a day to work to make it possible. Mark trained relentlessly at the club's pool and at Santa Clara High School. Between 1964 and 1968 he set national high school records in every stroke and every distance, and at eighteen he swam at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, winning two relay golds. After studying at Indiana University, he won seven gold medals at the 1972 Munich Olympics, each in world-record time, a record that stood for 36 years. His father's ambition and the Santa Clara pool had made him a champion.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today