Spitz Deserved Better Coverage

I was greatly disappointed in your coverage of Mark Spitz’s comeback to competitive swimming after a 19-year layoff (“Spitz Gets Swamped in Comeback,” April 14).

Your article’s extremely negative tone was uncalled-for and unprofessional. In my opinion, the skill, courage and determination exhibited by Spitz was inspirational to athletes throughout the world and should have been recognized as such.

Spitz hasn’t gone the route of many overweight, over-the-hill former boxing champions in taking on third-rate opponents to secure an easy victory. Instead, Spitz challenged arguably the best butterfly swimmer in the world in his comeback.

Your paper did its readers a great disservice in not recognizing Spitz’s courageous, inspirational performance. I hope that Spitz’s future efforts to achieve his goal of Olympic competition get more objective coverage from The Times.

GUNNAR B. GOODING

Newport Beach