Mark Spitz won the most gold medals ever for an athlete in a single Olympiad, swimming to seven victories and setting seven world records. Spitz broke the record previously held by Italian fencer Nedo Nadi, who won five golds in the 1920 Olympic Games. Since then two athletes have won six gold medals in an Olympiad: East German swimmer Kristin Otto of East Germany (the record for a woman athlete) and Vitaly Scherbo, a Byelorussian gymnast who won six gold medals for the Unified Team (former Soviet Union) in 1992.

This may come as a surprise to many, but Mark Spitz did not win the most individual swimming medals in Munich. A few months before turning 16 years old, Australian Shane Gould captured five medals, three of them gold, and set three world records. Within a year Gould would hold all women freestyle world records between 100 and 1500 meters. She retired before her 17th birthday. Gould's record in the 1500m, a non-Olympic event, may be considered the greatest women's sporting achievement ever. It would have been a world record for men only nine years earlier -- the smallest "chronological" difference between men and women's world records ever.

Lassa Virren, the great Finnish long-distance runner, stumbled and fell off the track during the 10,000 meter final. Virren was quick to recover, returned to the track and eventually won, setting a new world record. Viren went on to win the 5,000 meters and defended both titles four years later in Montreal.

Although Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut did not win the prestigious all-around event, the pig-tailed powerhouse is credited with turning women's gymnastics into one of the great attractions of the Olympic Games. Kurbut won millions of fans world-wide with her daring style, which included the first ever backward somersault on the bar -- the most spectecular moment of the games.