Testing The Limits Of Middle Age Mark Spitz won seven gold medals in the 1972 Olympics. He's now 40 years old, but he really believes he'll be in Barcelona in 1992

By SAM ALLIS and Mark Spitz

Q. It has been 18 years since you won at the Olympics. You are financially secure. You are married, with one child. Why are you doing this?

A. In everyday life there is always manana. There is no urgency. One of the most difficult things for people who have been successful in sports is adapting to the daily world where you can't get an answer from someone until 5 o'clock tomorrow. There is always an excuse. Living 40 or 50 years like that doesn't get too exciting after a while.

Q. So you miss the pressure?

A. I loved it. In those days I ran out of mananas on the day of the competition. Most people at the age of 22 never think about having to do something for the very last time in their whole life.

Q. This seems to be less about swimming and more about challenge.

A. Absolutely. It has nothing to do with swimming. That happens to be my sport. I'm trying to see how far I can go.

Q. You were not well liked after Munich. You're an underdog now. Is this also about redemption?

A. By making a comeback, I'm changing the attitude of people toward me. If I'd known that people would react so enthusiastically, I'd have done it years ago. Everyone loves to be loved.

Q. Like it or not, you are a role model for a lot of people. How does that make you feel?

A. I think that this whole challenge is almost exclusive to me, that if I am successful you couldn't run down the street and say to everybody who is 42 years old, "Get off your rear ends, quit being couch potatoes, and go do something with yourself." What it is saying is that someone who was a world champion and who takes care of himself with a 17-year rest and applies the proper training techniques and perseverance could be successful.

Q. So there is no broader message here?

A. Sure there is. I hear people say, "I should have done this and that." They rattle off 20 different reasons why they didn't do something. Almost 100% of the time they were capable of doing exactly what they said they should have done. But they didn't. So they couldn't. It's like trains going in and out of the depot. They've got no destinations, but they keep moving. You have to have the pelotas to get on one, and the wisdom to know whether it's going in the right direction, and the courage to jump off and do something about it if it's | the wrong direction. And most people don't. Because a known fact is better than an unknown fact. I'm at the depot, and I'm not going anywhere. That's better to deal with than having to deal with the unknown. And the unknown is they don't want to fail. They don't want to pay the price unless there's a guarantee they're going to get there.

Q. Why is failure so scary for most people?

A. People hate to look in the mirror and say, "You know something? I gave it my all. I trained as hard as I could. And I'm not worth a s---." Excuse my French, but nobody wants to accept that.

Q. What do experts think about your ability to do this?

A. All bets are off. I am the Martian man come to life in sports. If you had to create a situation to test the body, here's a guy who was great. He has taken care of himself. He has been sort of hibernating, time warped. We'll see what happens. But they don't really have a firm grip if a male body matures between 28 and 32. Now they say maybe it's 35. I might prove they really don't know what the hell they're talking about, and it may not even be until you're 50. I think we're going to redefine what 40-year-olds can do.

Q. How important is experience against youth and muscle?

A. Experience right now doesn't do a thing for me other than tell me, boy, I've got a lot of hard work ahead of me, and I know what the road is. I know a bunch of different roads to get there. If I get to the Olympics, that says age is no difference. I will have proved that. Then who are you going to bet on? All things being equal, you go with the guy who's been on the block more times than the next guy. I've been on the block at the Olympics about 25 times. I personally wouldn't want to swim against Mark Spitz in the Olympics.

Q. The young hot shots out there don't frighten you?

A. Nobody does. I don't get rattled by that stuff. I got beat real hard and heavy in the Olympic Games in 1968 by a guy who swam an incredible race one time in his whole life, but he did it right at the right time. I'd like to be that guy now. Maybe that's what I'm going to have to pull out of my hat to make the Olympic team.

Q. You're confident you'll beat your old time of 54:27 for the 100-meter butterfly?

A. Oh yeah. That's not even an issue. That's not braggadocio.

Q. Can you tell me what time you will need to make the team in 1992?

A. No. (Spitz's coach, Ron Ballatore, estimates a 52:9.)

Q. How do you train?

A. I rarely swim fly. I swim freestyle. Butterfly is the most difficult stroke. After swimming a minute of butterfly, you're on your butt. So guys who work out more than I do in butterfly have the greatest lousy stroke in the world, because your arms get tired, and you drop your elbows, and your technique is off. The technical stroke in butterfly is critical to the speed of the stroke.

Q. So you will actually be training less?

A. Yes. I'm only in one event, and I'm being coached this time as a sprinter. I don't know how little I have to do.

Q. You're training with weights for the first time?

A. Yeah. Free weights. They've learned a lot in the past 20 years. Today the weight training can specifically exercise certain muscle groups for freestyle sprints or butterfly sprints or whatever.

Q. What is it like practicing with the U.C.L.A. varsity?

A. They used to ask me all kinds of questions, and I used to tell them all these great answers. I finally woke up one morning and said, "One of these dudes is going to beat me by one of these little comments I'm making. I'd better cool it."

Q.Only two people make the Olympic team in each swimming event. If you don't make the American team, would you swim for another country, maybe Israel?

A. No, I don't think I would. I'm not going to renounce my American citizenship.

Q. What do your friends and family think of this?

A. I asked my brother-in-law if he thought I am crazy. He said, "You've got to be crazy to do what you did in 1972, so whatever you had going for you then is probably still in your brain now." My sister Nancy said, "If he makes the Olympic team, Mark's going to win." And I really believe that.

Q. Win the gold medal?

A. Yes. If I make the Olympic team, I go by my sister's philosophy. I'll win. But unless I make the team, I can't win.

Q. So what are the odds you're going to be in Barcelona in 1992?

A. Before I started swimming, 20%. Now that I've been swimming, I've got a fifty-fifty chance. After I get through swimming in competition for a while, we'll see.