The Real-Life Diet of Legendary Swimmer Mark Spitz, Who Still Does Imaginary Races Against Michael Phelps

In the summer of 2018, Olympic legend Mark Spitz walked to his fridge and almost fainted. His wife called the paramedics, kicking off a harrowing 12 hours at his local hospital.

The incident came out of nowhere. No one was as surprised as Spitz, who, at 70 years old, is still in damn good shape, exercises regularly, and has eaten a low-meat diet for almost 20 years. So what happened?

It turns out Spitz has atrial fibrillation, more commonly known as AFib. It’s a condition where the heart beats erratically—either too fast (tachycardia), as it does for Spitz, or too slow (bradycardia). Curiously, it’s relatively common among elite athletes as they age. And in case you need a refresher about Spitz’s elite athlete status: In 1972, he won seven gold medals and set seven world records at the Munich Olympics, all while rocking one of the finest mustaches of the 20th century.

Spitz has made a full recovery since his scare in the summer of 2018—so much so that he’s enthusiastically partnered with AliveCor, which manufactures the portable EKG monitor he now endorses (KardiaMobile). He recently spoke to GQ about living with a chronic heart condition, swimming imaginary races against Michael Phelps in his backyard pool, how training for the Olympics has evolved in the half-century since he competed, and who to watch for in Tokyo this year.

GQ: Can you tell me how you came to be diagnosed with AFib?

Mark Spitz: Well, it was a Sunday I believe, and my wife asked me to grab some blueberries from the refrigerator. When I got out there, I was feeling kind of weird, like light-headed, and I said to my wife, “I think I’m going to faint.” And I don’t ever get that sensation. After about five minutes, my wife called the paramedics.

The next 12 hours, they were trying to control me with medication. They had an IV in one arm for blood thinners, and another IV for controlling adrenaline to get my heart rate down. It was coming down but not fast enough, and they thought they could actually shock me into sinus rhythm. I was put to sleep and they shocked me three times in two minutes, like you see in the movies with the paddles. It still didn’t go down until later that evening.

I’d imagine that was a scary time.

Oh yeah. The disturbing thing I found out is that this stuff doesn’t go away. It’s not like, “Take two Aspirin and call me tomorrow.” This is a lifetime experience.

What kinds of lifestyle changes did you make to deal with that?

Having AFib is not a question of changing your lifestyle, it’s a question of understanding your lifestyle. If in fact you have some bad habits, you have to arrest those. There are three major things that my doctor says you should take into account: monitoring, diet, and exercise.

I have to be able to track my heart activity. A lot of people don’t know that they’re in AFib, and a lot of people don’t like to go to the doctor—when you have an EKG, they hook up all these wires to you, and you’re afraid of what they’re going to find out. But if you go into a routine of taking your EKG, then it just becomes a standard thing. I think knowing is so much more important than being afraid and not knowing.

I use this device called KardiaMobile. [Spitz is a spokesperson for KardiaMobile.] It can actually create an EKG at any time in 30 seconds. So I’m constantly monitoring myself.

What about diet nowadays? What do you eat for breakfast?

Oatmeal and fresh fruit. I have my blueberries—and by the way, nobody has asked me whether I actually ate those blueberries from my fridge.

Did you eat the blueberries?

No I didn’t! Because I was in AFib! I ended up eating hospital food. Anyway, I like fresh berries. I have non-fat yogurt and drink a lot of tea. For lunchtime, I have chicken or salad. I’ve learned to ask for dressing on the side. Usually I don’t have carbs like bread. I get carbs from fruit, mostly. For dinner we have fish at least twice a week. I very rarely eat meat, which is a change from before, when I was a big-time carnivore.

When did you make that change?

Probably 20 years ago. My wife is very into nutrition and a lot of my friends are vegetarian. I grew up on steak and potatoes, sour cream and cheesecake. I never met a dessert I didn’t like. I used to be about 25 pounds heavier than I am now.

Do you still have dessert once in a while?

Very rarely, and if I do, it’s just one bite to taste it. I used to have this problem where if I ordered a dessert, or anything really, I had to eat everything on the plate. I’m a Baby Boomer, so my parents told me to eat all those peas on my plate. I still don’t like peas.

How has your exercise routine changed of late?

It actually hasn’t changed. I walk five days a week for 45 minutes and I swim three times a week for 20 or 30 minutes. That helps get my heart rate up. My doctor said I shouldn't be concerned with getting my heart rate up. In the beginning, when I found out I had AFib, I swam just to warm up and move my muscles. But now I pick up the pace and pretend that I’m trying to beat Michael Phelps in my backyard pool.

Were you nervous to get back in the pool after the initial diagnosis?

I’m going to give you the answer that’s most truthful: Yes, I was nervous. It’s the unknown of having something that’s now part of life thrust upon you so fast.

How does your diet and exercise routine compare to when you competed?

Well, you have to go back about 48 years, when they didn’t know much about nutrition and how it related to super-athletes. I don’t think they had come close to the information stage that they’re at now. For example, I never did weight training and I never did cross-training, because all they had were free weights, the type that Arnold Schwarzenegger did. They didn’t have exercise equipment that was designed to exercise specific muscle groups. But from a training point of view, in the water, they pretty much do the same thing as I did.

As far as diet concerns, nobody knew anything back then.

So what would you eat in a day?

I always had scrambled eggs, sausages, and all these frozen meats that supposedly aren’t good for you. I stayed eating the same thing. I wouldn’t go swimming at the Olympics and start eating steak and eggs if I wasn’t used to eating steak and eggs. I tried to eat similar foods to what I was accustomed to. We’d go to McDonald’s and order three Big Macs, for example. Swimmers still eat in volume. I think they even documented Michael Phelps eating 4,000 calories for breakfast or something.

You were housing three Big Macs at a time?

Yeah. When I was 18 years old, in the summer we had to go to this pool to train that was a bit of a drive away to train. After we finished a workout, it was right around 10:00 a.m., which is when Baskin Robbins would open. There were about five of us in the carpool, and I would demand that I was the first one in, and I would have a triple scoop of ice cream. I wanted to be the first one because I could finish the triple scoop before the last of the carpool ordered, and then I’d be back in line again so I could order another triple scoop. I was consuming like six scoops of ice cream from the workout. But that was kind of common. You’d get ravenous.

What would you say is the biggest change to the sport since you competed?

Well, put very simply, I swam by myself, and I went to the Olympics by myself. Nowadays, these athletes have their agent with them, their psychologist with them, their CPA with them, their trainer with them, their coach for nutrition, their coach for the swimming pool. I think it’s a little more complicated, but it’s customary, so they grow up knowing that this is what happens when you become an athlete of a high caliber. It’s the same for most Olympic champions and most people in professional sports. We were sort of left alone, and frankly, we didn’t have much to think about because it was never brought to our attention to be concerned about nutrition. You just assumed that athletes who trained a lot didn’t have to worry about cholesterol.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask you about the upcoming Olympics. Do you have any plans for Tokyo? Anyone you look forward to seeing?

I’m scheduled to go to the Olympic Games representing a company I started years ago, Arena, which is a competitor to Speedo. I’ll be watching like everybody else. If you want to spotlight somebody, in women’s swimming the U.S. team has Katie Ledecky, who’s just fantastic. She’ll be swimming in a lot of different events. And this guy Caeleb Dressel, he’s unbelievable. He’s not going to be the next Michael Phelps immediately, but...I won’t say that’s what Caeleb is trying to do. When Michael Phelps was trying to beat my record, people said he was trying to be the next Mark Spitz, and I know he hated that. So I’ll just say that Caeleb’s trying to be himself. He’s going to be somebody to watch.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Real-Life Diet is a series in which GQ talks to athletes, celebrities, and everyone in-between about their diets and exercise routines: what's worked, what hasn't, and where they're still improving. Keep in mind, what works for them might not necessarily be healthy for you.

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Originally Appeared on GQ