Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics

At the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, 38 events in athletics were contested, 24 for men and 14 for women. There were a total number of 1324 participating athletes from 104 countries.

Medal summary

Men

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres	Valeriy Borzov  Soviet Union	10.14	Robert Taylor  United States	10.24	Lennox Miller  Jamaica	10.33
200 metres	Valeriy Borzov  Soviet Union	20.00	Larry Black  United States	20.19	Pietro Mennea  Italy	20.30
400 metres	Vincent Matthews  United States	44.66	Wayne Collett  United States	44.80	Julius Sang  Kenya	44.92
800 metres	Dave Wottle  United States	1:45.86	Yevhen Arzhanov  Soviet Union	1:45.89	Mike Boit  Kenya	1:46.01
1500 metres	Pekka Vasala  Finland	3:36.33	Kipchoge Keino  Kenya	3:36.81	Rod Dixon  New Zealand	3:37.46
5000 metres	Lasse Virén  Finland	13:26.42 (OR)	Mohammed Gammoudi  Tunisia	13:27.33	Ian Stewart  Great Britain	13:27.61
10,000 metres	Lasse Virén  Finland	27:38.35 (WR)	Emiel Puttemans  Belgium	27:39.58	Miruts Yifter  Ethiopia	27:40.96
110 metres hurdles	Rod Milburn  United States	13.24 (WR)	Guy Drut  France	13.34	Thomas Hill  United States	13.48
400 metres hurdles	John Akii-Bua  Uganda	47.82 (WR)	Ralph Mann  United States	48.51	David Hemery  Great Britain	48.52
3000 metres steeplechase	Kipchoge Keino  Kenya	8:23.64 (OR)	Ben Jipcho  Kenya	8:24.62	Tapio Kantanen  Finland	8:24.66
4×100 metres relay	United States (USA) Larry Black Robert Taylor Gerald Tinker Eddie Hart	38.19 (WR)	Soviet Union (URS) Aleksandr Kornelyuk Vladimir Lovetskiy Yuris Silovs Valeriy Borzov	38.50	West Germany (FRG) Jobst Hirscht Karlheinz Klotz Gerhard Wucherer Klaus Ehl	38.79
4×400 metres relay	Kenya (KEN) Charles Asati Munyoro Nyamau Robert Ouko Julius Sang	2:59.83	Great Britain (GBR) Martin Reynolds Alan Pascoe David Hemery David Jenkins	3:00.46	France (FRA) Gilles Bertould Daniel Velasques Francis Kerbiriou Jacques Carette	3:00.65
Marathon	Frank Shorter  United States	2:12:19.8	Karel Lismont  Belgium	2:14:31.8	Mamo Wolde  Ethiopia	2:15:08.4
20 kilometres walk	Peter Frenkel  East Germany	1:26:42.4 (OR)	Volodymyr Holubnychy  Soviet Union	1:26:55.2	Hans-Georg Reimann  East Germany	1:27:16.6
50 kilometres walk	Bernd Kannenberg  West Germany	3:56:11.6	Veniamin Soldatenko  Soviet Union	3:58:24.0	Larry Young  United States	4:00:46.0
High jump	Jüri Tarmak  Soviet Union	2.23 m	Stefan Junge  East Germany	2.21 m	Dwight Stones  United States	2.21 m
Pole vault	Wolfgang Nordwig  East Germany	5.50 m (OR)	Robert Seagren  United States	5.40 m	Jan Johnson  United States	5.35 m
Long jump	Randy Williams  United States	8.24 m	Hans Baumgartner  West Germany	8.18 m	Arnie Robinson  United States	8.03 m
Triple jump	Viktor Saneyev  Soviet Union	17.35 m	Jörg Drehmel  East Germany	17.31 m	Nelson Prudêncio  Brazil	17.05 m
Shot put	Władysław Komar  Poland	21.18 m (OR)	George Woods  United States	21.17 m	Hartmut Briesenick  East Germany	21.14 m
Discus throw	Ludvík Daněk  Czechoslovakia	64.40 m	Jay Silvester  United States	63.50 m	Ricky Bruch  Sweden	63.40 m
Hammer throw	Anatoliy Bondarchuk  Soviet Union	75.50 m (OR)	Jochen Sachse  East Germany	74.96 m	Vasili Khmelevski  Soviet Union	74.04 m
Javelin throw	Klaus Wolfermann  West Germany	90.48 m (OR)	Jānis Lūsis  Soviet Union	90.46 m	Bill Schmidt  United States	84.42 m
Decathlon	Mykola Avilov  Soviet Union	8454 pts (WR)	Leonid Lytvynenko  Soviet Union	8035 pts	Ryszard Katus  Poland	7984 pts

Women

Games	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres	Renate Stecher  East Germany	11.07 (WR)	Raelene Boyle  Australia	11.23	Silvia Chivás  Cuba	11.24
200 metres	Renate Stecher  East Germany	22.40 (=WR)	Raelene Boyle  Australia	22.45	Irena Szewińska  Poland	22.74
400 metres	Monika Zehrt  East Germany	51.08	Rita Wilden  West Germany	51.21	Kathy Hammond  United States	51.64
800 metres	Hildegard Falck  West Germany	1:58.55 (OR)	Nijolė Sabaitė  Soviet Union	1:58.65	Gunhild Hoffmeister  East Germany	1:59.19
1500 metres	Ludmila Bragina  Soviet Union	4:01.38 (WR)	Gunhild Hoffmeister  East Germany	4:02.83	Paola Pigni  Italy	4:02.85
100 metres hurdles	Annelie Ehrhardt  East Germany	12.59 (WR)	Valeria Bufanu  Romania	12.84	Karin Balzer  East Germany	12.90
4×100 metres relay	West Germany (FRG) Christiane Krause Ingrid Becker Annegret Richter Heide Rosendahl	42.81	East Germany (GDR) Evelin Kaufer Christina Heinich Bärbel Struppert Renate Stecher	42.95	Cuba (CUB) Marlene Elejarde Carmen Valdés Fulgencia Romay Silvia Chibás	43.36
4×400 metres relay	East Germany (GDR) Dagmar Käsling Rita Kühne Helga Seidler Monika Zehrt	3:22.95	United States (USA) Mable Fergerson Madeline Manning Cheryl Toussaint Kathy Hammond	3:25.15	West Germany (FRG) Anette Rückes Inge Bödding Hildegard Falck Rita Wilden	3:26.51
High jump	Ulrike Meyfarth  West Germany	1.92 m (=WR)	Yordanka Blagoeva  Bulgaria	1.88 m	Ilona Gusenbauer  Austria	1.88 m
Long jump	Heide Rosendahl  West Germany	6.78 m	Diana Yorgova  Bulgaria	6.77 m	Eva Šuranová  Czechoslovakia	6.67 m
Shot put	Nadezhda Chizhova  Soviet Union	21.03 m (WR)	Margitta Gummel  East Germany	20.22 m	Ivanka Khristova  Bulgaria	19.35 m
Discus throw	Faina Melnik  Soviet Union	66.62 m (OR)	Argentina Menis  Romania	65.06 m	Vasilka Stoeva  Bulgaria	64.34 m
Javelin throw	Ruth Fuchs  East Germany	63.88 m (OR)	Jacqueline Todten  East Germany	62.54 m	Kate Schmidt  United States	59.94 m
Pentathlon	Mary Peters  Great Britain	4801 pts (WR)	Heide Rosendahl  West Germany	4791 pts	Burglinde Pollak  East Germany	4768 pts

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Soviet Union (URS)	9	7	1	17
2	East Germany (GDR)	8	7	5	20
3	United States (USA)	6	8	8	22
4	West Germany (FRG)	6	3	2	11
5	Finland (FIN)	3	0	1	4
6	Kenya (KEN)	2	2	2	6
7	Great Britain (GBR)	1	1	2	4
8	Poland (POL)	1	0	2	3
9	Czechoslovakia (TCH)	1	0	1	2
10	Uganda (UGA)	1	0	0	1
11	Bulgaria (BUL)	0	2	2	4
12	Australia (AUS)	0	2	0	2
	Belgium (BEL)	0	2	0	2
	Romania (ROU)	0	2	0	2
15	France (FRA)	0	1	1	2
16	Tunisia (TUN)	0	1	0	1
17	Cuba (CUB)	0	0	2	2
	Ethiopia (ETH)	0	0	2	2
	Italy (ITA)	0	0	2	2
20	Austria (AUT)	0	0	1	1
	Brazil (BRA)	0	0	1	1
	Jamaica (JAM)	0	0	1	1
	New Zealand (NZL)	0	0	1	1
	Sweden (SWE)	0	0	1	1
Totals (24 entries)		38	38	38	114

References

• Athletics Australia