The photo of Spitz with those medals around his neck is one of the abiding sporting images of the past century and to this day he bestrides the sport like a colossus. His remains a unique achievement and continues to be the gold standard for Olympians.

In Athens, however, his record was under threat like never before as his young compatriot Michael Phelps set out on an improbable quest for eight golds. He may have fallen short but six golds, a silver and a bronze was a remarkable haul in anyone's books.

Spitz certainly thinks so.

The American great was in Hong Kong this week as a motivational speaker for a pharmaceutical company. Since that glorious week 32 years ago, Spitz has been highly sought-after as a speaker for corporations and it has afforded him a comfortable living.

Despite his 54 years, Spitz looks tanned and athletic and one has no doubts he could still churn out a few fast laps if the need arose.

Spitz was in Athens for the recent Games and liked what he saw, both in the organisation of the event - 'I never had a fear they weren't going to pull it off'- and in the performances of Phelps.

'He was great for the sport of swimming,' says Spitz. 'He brought tremendous recognition. It was great for television, great for the Games. It's hard to deal with the pressure of this kind. He's only 19. The average age of the swimmers is 22 or 23. The average of sprinters is 28. He's going to get stronger, and as he gets older he'll gain more speed.'

Spitz predicts another medal bonanza for Phelps in Beijing when he should be at his peak, and can see him ending up with more medals than anybody when he's done.

It was Phelps' competitive approach that really impressed Spitz, particularly taking on freestyle specialists Ian Thorpe and Peter van den Hoogenband in the 200 metres free. 'He was within 0.48 of a second of the world record in the 200m backstroke but he gave it up to swim the 200m freestyle in which he could really do no better than bronze. Why? Because he wanted to swim against Thorpe.'

The drive for eight gold medals received much play in the media, but Spitz thought it unrealistic. 'I never thought he could win [the 200m freestyle] unless the others faltered.'

Spitz knows first-hand the pressure of such high expectations. As an 18-year-old in Mexico City in 1968, Spitz was expected to win six golds - he denies making such a prediction - but fell well short.

'The prediction of six gold medals was the papers. They looked at me being the world record-holder in three events and thought with the relays I could win six. I won two gold medals, a silver and bronze. Does that sound like failure?'

The seeds of his Munich success were sown in Mexico, or to be more precise, in the critical press reaction following those Games. 'I'm thankful I believed the press clippings. I was gullible enough to believe them and it gave me the drive to prove myself four years later in Munich.

'In the 100 fly I placed second and lost my place on the medley relay team. So that defeat cost me two golds. Doug Russell, by beating me in that race, inspired me to come back four years later.'

Munich, of course, was a different story. Spitz' first event in 1972 was the 200m butterfly, in which he had finished an ignominious last four years earlier.

How did he feel as stood on the blocks? 'Nervous,' he says, 'but confident.

'It was my worst event, and the event I hated most. And I won. And after that it was just positive reinforcement. I didn't have to second-guess myself about whether I'd trained hard enough, or tapered at the right time. I was on my game.'

If Munich is remembered for anything other than Spitz, it is the deaths of 11 Israeli athletes taken hostage by Palestinian militants.

Though the hostage drama didn't coincide with Spitz's medal bonanza (his events had finished by then), the two became indelibly linked in the public consciousness after those Games, perhaps representing the best and worst that human nature has to offer.

'It was a tragedy. And it affected me by being identified with it at those Games. You had the triumph and tragedy,' he says.

Munich was the highlight of Spitz's career and effectively the end, at age 22. Retirement followed. 'They didn't allow sponsorship then. Had the rules been the same then as they are now, I would have gone on to Montreal. To compete in Montreal I would have needed some sort of subsidy.'

The success of Munich changed Spitz's life dramatically, and opened up opportunities that wouldn't have been there otherwise.

Thirty-two years on he's still basking in the success of those eight days in Munich. 'For 32 years I've been able to make money from the success of those Olympics. I've met many great people and been given an insight into life that I would never have been able to have. I got to do things like television that I never would have been able to do.'

What made him so much better than his peers?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given his role as a motivational speaker, Spitz puts it down to mental strength. Confidence, positive thinking, channeling your energy - all are recurring themes.

Winning, he says, was a matter not just of convincing himself he was the best but convincing everybody else as well.

'What made me so good? Everybody else thinking they weren't. Part of it may have been God-given,' he concedes.

There's no false modesty when Spitz talks matter-of-factly about his nine gold medals, umpteen world records and dominance of the sport. He gives every sign of the healthy ego you would expect in a great sportsman, but there isn't a hint of arrogance. He's a winner, plain and simple. Why should he hide it? 'Everyone wants to be a winner. I have just as much right to win as everybody else. The only way you're going to win is you have to take it away from me.'

You feel Spitz always understood the power of psychology.

One example was the famous moustache. 'My coach [Sherm Chavoor] wanted us clean shaven. But back then we had all these rock groups with long hair and everyone had moustaches and goatie beards. Being 22 I wanted to fit right in, and I grew it with the intention of shaving it off. I went to the trials and everyone was talking about the moustache. I thought that if everyone's thinking about me then they're not thinking about their own games. I'll keep this thing and play it out.'

Then in Munich it became a talking point among his Soviet rivals. 'They asked me about the moustache and whether I was going to shave it off. I said no I'm not going to shave it. It's going to deflect the water away from mouth and keep me lower in the water when I'm doing the freestyle and butterfly. The next year, I kid you not, all the Russian swimmers turned up with moustaches.'

In 1989 sans moustache - he had shaved it off the year before - Spitz risked tarnishing his record and even public humiliation by attempting an improbable comeback at the age of 39.

In the intervening 17 years, he says, training methods had been revolutionised, particularly with the use of weights which allowed the working of particular muscle groups without producing the bulk of the old fashioned barbells of Spitz's era.

'The development of weight training allowed the evolution of larger athletes,' he says. 'There's always been tall athletes but they didn't have the strength to pull that body mass through the water. Now you're getting guys who are 6-foot-5 or 6-8 and because of the development in weight training they can [compete].'

Spitz was lured back into the water after seeing his former rivals swimming faster in their 40s than they did at their peaks.

'All my times were so blown away that they wouldn't even make the qualifying marks [for the Olympics]. Except the 100m butterfly. That time was still the third fastest ever swum [by an American].

'And the two guys with faster times had retired. I got to thinking, if I could just get back and swim the same time I could be a contender.

'What I underestimated was that that would bring those guys out of retirement!'

One of them, Pablo Morales, went on and won the gold in Barcelona. 'I inspired him out of retirement. But I was 42 and he was 28.'

Spitz failed in his quest to get to Barcelona, but maintains it was the right decision to attempt a comeback.

'It was a great example for my older son [he has two with his wife of 31 years]. And it brought attention and notoriety to the sport, which was not really my objective. I got to within 97 per cent at 42 of where I was at 22. I was always in the hunt for 80 metres but didn't have it in that last 20. My times were improving but I never did get there.

'And, I inspired some people to get into that event to swim against Mark Spitz.'

Another thing that had changed since the Spitz era was the spectre of drugs, which have cast a pall over recent Games.

In 1972 the only drugs you were likely to encounter were those passed around at parties. 'The sports that we associate with drug-taking, like weightlifting, were always problematic,' he concedes. 'But in track and field and swimming they were a lot less prominent.

Spitz is adamantly anti-drug, and believes the battle is finally being won.

He gives two reasons. The Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (Balco) investigation has uncovered previously undetected substances, which are now on the banned list.

And the IOC, under president Jacques Rogges, had instituted a get-tough policy where drugs are concerned, which wasn't the case before.

'We always had the means, but now we've stepped up to police them,' Spitz says. 'It's a great leap forward. The veil was lifted when Balco was caught. In reality, there's no perfect system. We can only strive to make it better.'

Striving. If any words sums up Spitz and his attitude to life it is this one. And he admires it in others, particularly Thorpe and Phelps of the current generation.

For Spitz, who set the bar higher than anyone 32 years ago, it is that competitive spirit rather than medal hauls which is the mark of a great athlete.

'If you spend too much time keeping score you can't play the game.'