Michael Phelps v. Mark Spitz

Tonight, Michael Phelps equaled Mark Spitz's 1972 record for Olympic productivity, winning his seventh medal of these Olympic games.

Of course, it's unfair to compare Spitz's performances to those of today's Olympians. Spitz was forced to swim through water as viscous as an oil slick wearing a 3-piece woolen suit, and today's Olympians swim downhill both ways and have suits made of fish scales.

Still, it bears noting that Spitz's gold medal winning times would barely win the women's events today.

Race	Spitz's Time	Current Women's World Record	Current Men's World Record
100m freestyle	51.22	Libby Trickett 52.88	Eamon Sullivan 47.05
200m freestyle	1:52	Federica Pellegrini 1:54.82	Michael Phelps 1:42.96
100m butterfly	54.27	Inge de Bruijn 56.61	Ian Crocker 50.40
200m butterfly	2:00.70	Zige Liu 2:04.18	Michael Phelps 1:52.03
4×100m freestyle relay	3:26.42	Netherlands 3:33.62	US 3:08.24
4×200m freestyle relay	7:35.78	Australia 7:44.31	US 6:58.56
4×100m medley relay	3:48.16	Australia 3:55.74	US 3:30.68

See Also:
Modern Women's World Records vs. Historical Men's World Records
Modern Women's World Records vs. Historical Men's World Records — Part II