Why Isn't Mark Spitz Attending the Summer Olympics in Beijing?

Jason Lezak's amazing final lap in the men's 4x100 meters freestyle relay gave the US men's swimming team the just-by-a-fingertip win it needed to accomplish two goals - keep Michael Phelp's dream of becoming the world's greatest swimmer with eight gold medals alive, and stunning the over-confident French team into an embarrassed having-to-eat-their-own-words silence after their proclamation that they would "smash" the US. Woo hoo!

It's a sure thing that Phelps will leave Beijing with the most gold medals of any Olympian. He won six in Athens and needs just two more to have the record breaking total of eight. But Phelps is after a bigger prize - breaking Mark Spitz's record setting seven gold medals at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Phelps wants to win eight gold medals in an Olympiad, a record in itself, that would bring his career gold medals to an astonishing 14.

With the Phelps quest keeping the adrenaline rush going that began with the pageantry, grandeur, and technological genius of the awe-inspiring opening of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing - which has all the world searching for new superlatives to describe it - only one thing could possibly eclipse it all - Mark Spitz's ego.

Mark Spitz is upset. No one invited him to the Summer Olympics in Beijing to be on hand if (when) Michael Phelps breaks his record and wins eight gold medals (and likely continues to break world records as he wins) in an Olympiad. Say's Spitz to the AFP in Hong Kong, "They voted me one of the top five Olympians in all time. Some of them are dead. But they invited the other ones to go to the Olympics, but not me," he said. "Yes, I am a bit upset about it." One is inclined to want to jump to Spitz's defense. Shouldn't he be there? Bjorn Borg was on hand for the Nadal-Federer matches at both the French Open and the now legendary Wimbledon match this year as his record was being challenged. Nadia Comaneci is on hand to support the Romanian women's gymnastics team, who are this year, a pale imitation of the glorious team she was part of when she won the gold and scored the world's first perfect 10 at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

Mark Spitz has been called the World's Greatest Athlete and rightfully so. He was the first athlete to win seven gold medals in an Olympiad. His victory was all the more remarkable because he set world records in all seven events. He also added an extra element to the Olympics - sex appeal. I watched him set all seven records and along with my other just turned 13 girlfriends, swooned when he appeared in those Schick TV commercials. And the poster of Spitz wearing his swimsuit and seven gold medals - pure pinup bliss.

So yes, Spitz's mark on Olympic history is extraordinary and I was outraged on his behalf that he had been snubbed by the ONC this year. Until he said this in a recent interview . . .

"I never got invited. You don't go to the Olympics just to say, I am going to go. Especially because of who I am. I am going to sit there and watch Michael Phelps break my record anonymously? That's almost demeaning to me. It is not almost -- it is."

Excuse me?

When Michael Caine (stay with me here) won his second Oscar as Best Supporting Actor (the first was in 1988 for Hanna and Her Sisters) in 2000 for The Cider House Rules, he accepted the award with style, grace, and something Mark Spitz sorely lacks . . . humility. Here is what Sir Michael (knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 2000) said.

"Thank you. I was looking watching all the others and thinking back when I saw the performances. I'm thinking of how the Academy changed "The winner is" to "The Oscar goes to," and if ever there was a category where the Oscar goes to someone without there being a winner, it's this one, because I do not feel like being the winner.

You have Michael [Clarke Duncan]..who I'd never heard of, quite frankly..who is astonishing.

You have Jude [Law] who is going to be a big star no matter what happens.

You have Tom [Cruise], who, if you had won this, your price would have gone down so fast. Have you any idea what supporting actors get paid?

And we only get one motor home. A small one.

And Haley Osment, what an astonishing -- there he is. Haley, when I saw you, I thought 'Well that's me out of it'.

So, really, I'm basically up here guys, to represent you as what I hope you will all be, a survivor."

Now that's class.

In 1989 at age 39 the 6-foot-1 Spitz at only eight pounds heavier, but 17 years older than in 1972, began training for the 1992 Olympic Trials. Spitz raced Olympians Tom Jager and Matt Biondi in separate 50-meter butterfly races in 1991 on ABC's Wide World of Sports. Spitz needed 55:59, his best time was 58:03. He lost both races and failed to qualify for the 1992 Olympics. Compare that to the stunning Dara Torres who is the standard bearer for longevity in Olympic swimming at age 41. As the first US swimmer to compete in five Olympics, she anchored the 2008 US women's 4x100 meters freestyle relay team that won silver in Beijing - this just two years after giving birth to her daughter.

Spitz said he would like to present the gold medals to Phelps. Can you imagine how that would go? Michael Phelp's moment to rightfully shine as the world's most amazing athlete ever would be eclipsed by Mark Spitz somehow trying to make it all about him. I'm not sure there is room enough in the Water Cube for Spitz's ego and perhaps that's why he didn't rate an invitation.