Scene I: Mexico City, 1968. A gawky youngster of 18 who looks as if he could be Jerry Lewis' younger brother, perfunctorily addresses a putt. On the course beside him is his swimming coach and constant companion, Sherman Chavoor. Since the boy had recently boasted that he would become the first Olympian to win six gold medals, he needs all the relaxing he can get. Not today. A passerby happens to spot him on the green and shouts, "Hey, Jew boy, you aren't going to win any gold medals!" The brutal slur is delivered by one of the youth's comrades on the U.S. men's swimming team.
Scene II: Munich, 1972. A sinewy young man of 22, who looks as if he could be Omar Sharif's younger brother, confidently strides through the Olympic Village. Surrounding him is a retinue of coaches and teammates—the entourage of an athletic eminence. At the village entrance, dozens of jock groupies strain to touch him, plead for his autograph. Inside, competitors from other countries seek his signature. "Oh, look!" cries a delighted U.S. mermaid. "There he is!" Journalists pursue him into the shower before practice. People persistently ask: Can he win seven gold medals? Yes, he answers with quiet confidence.
THE Mexico City schlemiel and the Munich superstar are the same person: Mark Andrew Spitz of Carmichael, Calif. The sullen, abrasively cocky kid with the sunken visage has matured into a smooth, adroitly confident young man with modish locks and mustache. More important, he has developed into a talent without peer in the world of competitive swimming. In the four years since his personal disaster in Mexico City, where he won only two gold medals (and those in relay events), Spitz has grown up, graduated from college and at one time or another broken 28 world freestyle and butterfly records. That spectacular string of victories continued as the XX Olympiad got under way last week. Spitz led a green but able young American team into the competition with an incandescent performance that ranks with the legendary triumphs of Jim Thorpe, Paavo Nurmi and Jesse Owens.
Spitz and the other 11,999 athletes from 124 nations opened the Olympiad under the bright Bavarian sunlight in Munich's vast acrylic-domed stadium. The national teams paraded by the grandstand in a panoply of colors as massed bands played modern dance tunes instead of the traditional martial anthems. The Olympic flame, carried some 3,500 miles by an international team of 5,976 runners, was borne to the torch by Gunter Zahn, 18, West German runner. West German President Gustav Heinemann officially initiated the games with the prescribed 14-word pronunciamento: "I declare open the Olympic Games celebrating the XX Olympiad of the modern era." The mountain horns flourished, and 80,000 enthusiastic spectators and hundreds of millions of TV viewers settled back to watch the drama begin.