大象传媒

Winning two gold medals at an Olympic Games would be a magnificent achievement for almost any athlete but for , it meant a huge disappointment.

He had set 10 world records going in to the 1968 Olympics and boldly predicted he would win six golds in Mexico.

Spitz only managed a silver and bronze in the 100m and 200m butterfly races respectively, while his two golds came in the 100m and 200m freestyle relays.

Of course what happened four years later is the stuff of legend.

He returned to the Olympics for the Munich Games in 1972 and produced the finest display of swimming ever witnessed.

Seven races, seven gold medals, seven world records.

Here's the list in full: 100m freestyle - 51.22 seconds, 200m freestyle - 1 minute, 52.78, 100m butterfly - 54.27, 200m butterfly 2:00.70, 4x100m freestyle - 3:26.42, 4x200m freestyle relay - 7:35.78 and 4x100m medley - 3:48.16.

Spitz, who is Jewish, was escorted out of Munich after Palestinian terrorists broke into the athletes' village, killing two members of the Israeli team and taking nine others hostage.

He attempted a comeback at the age of 39 for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

But his best time of just over 58 seconds, for the 100m butterfly, was three seconds adrift of the qualifying mark, and four seconds slower than his 1972 world record.

In all, Spitz won nine golds, one silver and one bronze and set 33 world records, which is another record in itself.

Two notable swimmers have tried, and failed, to match Spitz's achievement.

came close at the 1988 Seoul Games - the American won seven medals, but only five were of the gold variety.

And in 2004, Michael Phelps eclipsed Spitz and Biondi by winning eight medals, but seven golds remained elusive as there were two bronzes in the mix.

Phelps will go for eight again in Beijing - will he make it this time?