Mark Spitz

Hello, and welcome to Compounding Returns.

I'm Marka Wasaba, and this show is about one idea, that these small, consistent actions taken in life, leadership, and sport can have outsized impacts over time and can lead to a life that many people admire and rarely touch.

Compounding Returns is for people who perform in boardrooms, on start lines, and everywhere in between.

My guest today is a former colleague, a former boss, and a mentor, someone who has lived a career that most people, including me, can only imagine.

And here's a little bit of swimming trivia for you.

So I swam at University of Toronto in, uh, the '80s, and my coach there was Byron MacDonald, who, uh, swam in '72 Olympics against, um, uh, Mark Spitz in the finals, uh, uh, in fly and everything, and he was my coach then.

And he's still the head coach of the, the, the best team in Canada, or arguably the best team and the most-- I-I believe there's a title there that he is the most winningest coach in college sports, period.

Um, ec- And I, I was-- So the full circle thing here is, um, I come back with ISL, and I hired Byron as my head coach, which is kind of cool.

We're trying to continue our lives.

And in the middle of it, I get a phone call, and I put it up to my wife and I show her my phone, and it's Mark Spitz.

And Mark and I started talking during the pandemic, talking about shows on Netflix, and s- so I really got to know Mark at a, in a way.

I've known him for years and years and years, but I've never got to truly know him.

...

Mel has said this a lot at this point, but when Mark Spitz competed with a mustache, he said it created this bubble ar- around, around it-

Of debris

... and that gave him an advantage.