(Ebook) Mark Spitz: The Extraordinary Life of an Olympic Champion by Richard J. Foster, Keith Jackson, Mark Spitz ISBN 9781595800398, 1595800395

(Ebook) Mark Spitz: The Extraordinary Life of an Olympic Champion by Richard J. Foster, Keith Jackson, Mark Spitz ISBN 9781595800398, 1595800395

What I really dislike about that book is the author's (not Mark's!) attitude towards us Germans. I'm a post-war child being taught the unbelievable horror and harm the Nazis covered the world with, and I feel so ashamed and sorry I can't find words here. But I also grew up with Mark Spitz being my idol and role model and his triumphs here in Munich, Germany, were the highlights of my youth as far as sports is concerned. When I worked in the swimming business I met Mark Spitz in person during the World Championships in Berlin in 1978. He was such a great person, so honest and so polite that I was deeply impressed. Whenever the author refers to Germany, though, he connects the country with guilt, weird sportsmen and rude behaviour. A country the sportsman Mark Spitz had to suffer from. I think it's utterly unfair to blame the German government for hectical actions after the terroristc attacks on the Israeli team. After 9/11 US authorities weren't relaxed and calm either. In fact, there was panic everywhere. There is not one single quote of Spitz himself citicizing Germany as a nation or the staff at the Olympics in Munich. The author must have forgotten - what I remember well - that the majority of the people in the swimming halls back then were Germans, mostly young people who supported Mark as if he was one of them. Mark Spitz was enormously popular in Germany because he was NOT the showing off, boasting killer-swimmer, but a well-educated gentleman in speedos. I can't remember the American public having idolized a foreign sportsman in that way. So I think it's neither fair nor correct to imply that part of Mark's energy was based upon his hatred against the EVIL, which was Germany in his case.