Word: municheers
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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...
...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...
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...
Beginning on the outskirts of the city, seemingly every knoll and grassy patch sprouts a grove of flagpoles with pale green, blue and white banners blazing a trail to the Munich Games. On the horizon, the bright blue Bavarian sky is pierced by the futuristic Olympic Tower, a 943-ft. skymark for the Games. Below, sprawling over 740 undulating acres, is the Olympic Park, a verdant retreat with a boating lake, broad tree-lined walkways and facilities for more than two-thirds of the 195 events* on the Olympic agenda. Three of the largest venues are partially under one "roof...
Since her arrival, Jo Harshbarger, a 15-year-old swimmer from Bellevue, Wash., has had only one reservation about coming to Munich. The dressing rooms at the swimming stadium are coed, she explains, and have individual dressing stalls, "but the sides are so small that the tall boys can look over." As for life at the Olympic Village, she says: "It's weird but really fantastic...