1972 Olympic Phenom Mark Spitz is an American former competitive swimmer and nine-time Olympic champion. He won seven gold medals at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, an achievement surpassed only by Michael Phelps, who won eight golds at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Spitz set new world records in all seven events in which he competed in 1972. His record of seven gold medals in a single Olympics stood for 36 years until it was broken by Phelps in 2008.