Mark Spitz won a then-record seven golds at Munich 1972
On this day · 4 September 1972
At the 1972 Munich Olympics, American swimmer Mark Spitz won seven gold medals in eight days — and set a world record in every single race.
Over eight days at the 1972 Munich Olympics, American swimmer Mark Spitz entered seven races and won all seven, taking gold each time. More astonishing still, he set a world record in every one of them — an unprecedented clean sweep that no swimmer had ever managed at a single Games.
His haul mixed individual and team events: the 100m and 200m freestyle, the 100m and 200m butterfly, and three relays — the 4x100m freestyle, 4x200m freestyle, and 4x100m medley. The seventh and final gold, in the medley relay, came on 4 September 1972.
Seven races, seven golds, seven world records.
Spitz’s seven golds stood as the record for the most won at a single Olympic Games for 36 years, until fellow American swimmer Michael Phelps claimed eight at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The feat made Spitz one of the defining figures of the Munich Games and a lasting benchmark for Olympic swimming.
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