Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics

Athletics at the Games of the XX Olympiad
No. of events	38
Competitors	1,324 from 104 nations
← 1968 1976 →

Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
800 m	men	women
1500 m	men	women
5000 m	men
10,000 m	men
100 m hurdles		women
110 m hurdles	men
400 m hurdles	men
3000 m steeplechase	men
4 × 100 m relay	men	women
4 × 400 m relay	men	women
Road events
Marathon	men
20 km walk	men
50 km walk	men
Field events
Long jump	men	women
Triple jump	men
High jump	men	women
Pole vault	men
Shot put	men	women
Discus throw	men	women
Javelin throw	men	women
Hammer throw	men
Combined events
Pentathlon		women
Decathlon	men
v t e

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.

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

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

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

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