Posted on 08/11/2008 2:02:50 PM PDT by Hildy
HONG KONG (AFP) - US swim legend Mark Spitz won't be on hand in Beijing if Michael Phelps breaks his record of seven gold medals at a single Olympics—because, he says, no one bothered to invite him.
Spitz said the International Olympic Committee, a US television network or FINA—the international body that governs world swimming—should have brought him to the Games this year, with Phelps making a go at his record.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.yahoo.com ...
Then he could have made the reservations himself. No one prevented him from going. Oh, then he’d have to send out his own press releases in order to get publicity. Reminds me of Obama. No, wait, he wanted to present Phelps with his medals. Reminds me of Clinton.
How do you fill an Olympic swimming pool?
Mark Spitz.
Sure, it would have been nice tv.
But, really. Go have a cry in your beer with Brat Favre, Mark.
I'll take that bet.
I bet that he and family flew AF-One, on our dime and all tickets were comped by the ChiComs.
Gppd grief. I just checked your home page, Newbie, and it’s more Animal Farm. Your sole comment on your page is:
“I agree with everything the Happy Bunny has ever said.”
Sorry, I can’t treat seriously anything you might say about childishness, LOL!
Gppd = good (type above)
1. Anybody who has accomplished what Spitz did in the Olympics has a certain 'right' to be both proud and a bit arrogant.
2. However, that does not mean he should be. The athletes most admired by all are the humble ones.
3. I wonder what Spitz did to piss off the IOC? I am certain that this is payback for past sins.
Gppd = good (type above)
Geez, (typo above, not type above). I’ve got to go eat something today. Can’t type anymore. Too hungry.
That’s the best you got. Did you actually read Mark’s comments in the interview? Did you actually stop to understand that he managed to get all the way to Hong Kong and schedule an interview all by himself to do nothing more than whine about who didn’t volunteer to pay him to go to the Olympics?
Did you stop to realize that deciding whether or not somebody should be taken seriously based entirely on their sign on date is even MORE childish that Mark Spitz?
“Did you stop to realize that deciding whether or not somebody should be taken seriously based entirely on their sign on date is even MORE childish that Mark Spitz?”
It wasn’t your sign-on date so much as your one and only comment on your home page:
“I agree with everything the Happy Bunny has ever said.”
After reading that, I was ROFLMAO! Sorry, can’t take anything you say seriously, not after reading your home page in conjunction with the “handle” (screen name) you chose for yourself. It’s too much all at once. I’ll take Mark spitz’ alleged silliness over yours any day. About to start laughing again, so I’m going to go eat something to stop the laughter.
That’s all I feel like saying about myself. Sorry if that bothers you, but the fact that you went to my page clearly for no reason OTHER than to find something to make this discussion about me instead of about the actual topic (the fact that Mark Spitz wants free tickets to the Olympics because of what he did 36 years ago, and is bitching because nobody ponied up) just shows I was right.
You should be ROFLYAO, the Happy Bunny is funny.
But do you have anything to say that ISN’T a sad little attempt to turn this into a flame war instead of a debate? Do you actually have a reason why we shouldn’t think that Spitz is behaving as a petulant child? Do you actually have a point?
But do you have anything to say that ISN’T a sad little attempt to turn this into a flame war instead of a debate? Do you actually have a reason why we shouldn’t think that Spitz is behaving as a petulant child? Do you actually have a point?
Yes, actually I do. I admire Mark Spitz, flaws and all, infinitely more than I do your inane comments about his personality even though you have never met the man in your life. And his life was one of accomplishment and still is. And he got 7 gold medals; what did you ever get in life to equal that, hmmmmm?
And Spitz won all those medals as a Jew at the 1972 Munich Olympics:
“Then tragedy struck. At 4:30 a.m. September 5, Palestinian terrorists broke into the athletes’ compound, killing two members of the Israeli delegation and taking nine others hostage. Spitz, who had won his final medal only hours earlier, lay sleeping nearby.
In the morning Spitz attended a press conference, flanked by coaches and German police. “I think the murders in the village are very tragic,” he said. “I have no further comment.”
Spitz, who is Jewish, was understandably nervous. He left for London immediately, before the closing ceremonies.”
Spitz did promotional work after the Olympics, some TV/movie work, owned a successful real estate business for years, has been married to the same woman also for years, and is now an entrepreneur businessman who enjoys sailing in his spare time.
That’s what I have to say. So your comments about childishness pale as compared to his accomplishments in life. Sorry, boogerbear, happy bunny, but that’s the way it is.
So buy a ticket and go, Mark..geez.. you have to be invited before you go?
“And he got 7 gold medals; what did you ever get in life to equal that, hmmmmm?”
I don’t care if a man wins 1000 gold medals and breaks every record in the book, it doesn’t make him a decent person, and if he’s going to make childish remarks to the press, he’s going to get called on it. He isn’t any better than any other human being or immune from criticism if he acts like a jerk.
“if he acts like a jerk”
Hmmm, and you are? Ok, time to terminate a pointless non-conversation. Toodles, newbie.
He was a big hero at the time, but his outsized ego destroyed his ability to follow thru with endorsements past the first surge. I DO so hope Phelps breaks his record.
Phelps won my heart when he bypassed the opportunity to swim in the final relay so one of his teammates could get the gold the team was pretty well assured of ... Phelps thought he could live without another gold but it may have been his team mate’s last opportunity. For a superstar, that’s terrific. For anyone it’s terrific.
“brought him”? He’s just a tad entitled isn’t he? This makes me want to cheer for Phelps even harder!
Not that I was grown up that year. I was still very much a kid. My favorite band was The Partridge Family and I actually posted a letter to "Reuben Kincaid - Manager of the Partridge Family" asking him if there was room for one more in the band (there wasn't). I also got in big trouble for opening cereal boxes at the supermarket to grab the prizes inside. Boy, did my butt hurt for days when I got home.
Now this here Mark Spitz has quite the big head about himself. Yet I remember him well. He was the swimming guy in the 1972 Olympics. Yes, I remember all of that. I was sitting on the couch at home eating sunflower seeds. I discovered sunflower seeds that year and I had this big empty coffee can that I spit the shells out in. You could get a sack of sunflower seeds at the local mom and pop store for a nickel. I would get a quarter for doing some kind of errand and I'd come back home with five sacks of sunflower seeds. Back in the day, that was living large.
But that was a hell of a long time ago. And I'm sure many people here at Free Republic wasn't even born when this Mark Spitz put on a pair of swimming trunks (one leg at a time like the rest of us) and won all them gold medals. So Mark Spitz should just be lucky that some of us are still around to remember him and buy his own damn tickets and airfare if he wants to see somebody break his record.
That’s why I called it a ‘bad-itude’ LOL! ;)
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