17th Olympic Games in 1972
Venue: Munich, Germany
Dates: August 26 to September 10,1972
Numbers of Sports: 23 (195 events)
Numbers of Nations: 121
Numbers of Participant: 7170 (6075 men
and 1095 women)
Youngest Gold Medalist: Deana Deardurff
(United States) aged 15 years 118 days in Swimming
Oldest Gold Medalist: Hans Gunter Winkler
(Germany) aged 46 years 49 days in Show Jumping
Final Medals tally:
Country G S B
Soviet Union 50 27 22
United States 33 31 30
East Germany 20 23 23
West Germany 13 11 16
Japan 13 8 8
Australia 8 7 2
Poland 7 5 9
Hungary 6 13 16
Bulgaria 6 10 5
Italy 5 3 10
Sweden 4 6 6
Great Britain 4 5 9
Romania 3 6 7
Cuba 3 1 4
Finland 3 1 4
Holland 3 1 1
France 2 4 7
Czechoslovakia 2 4 2
Kenya 2 3 4
Yugoslavia 2 1 2
Norway 2 1 1
North Korea 1 1 3
New Zealand 1 1 1
Uganda 1 1 –
Denmark 1 – –
Switzerland – 3 –
Canada – 2 3
Iran – 2 1
Belgium – 2 –
Greece – 2 –
Austria – 1 2
Colombia – 1 2
Argentina – 1 –
Lebanon – 1 –
Mexico – 1 –
Mongolia – 1 –
Pakistan – 1 –
South Korea – 1 –
Tunisia – 1 –
Turkey – 1 –
Brazil – – 2
Ethiopia – – 2
Ghana – – 1
India – – 1
Jamaica – – 1
Niger – – 1
Nigeria – – 1
Spain – – 1
Total 195 195 210
TRIVIA:
n The 1972 Munich Games were the largest yet, setting records in all categories, with 195 events and 7170 athletes from 121 nations.
n September 5, 1972, was the blackest day in Olympic history. Six Palestinians broke through the perfunctory security in the village, joined two others already there and made their way to the Israeli headquarters. Two Israelis were killed and nine taken hostage. In a subsequent battle, all nine hostages were killed, plus five of the Palestinians and a policeman.
n The opening ceremony of the 1972 Munich Games was watched on television by a live audience of 1000 million which was then a record.
n One of the runners in the torch relay bringing the Olympic flame to Munich was 78-year-old Edgar Fried, a former general-secretary of the Austrian Olympic Committee, who had been in the original torch relay in 1936 at Berlin.
n German athlete Heidi Schuller, who took the oath in theses Games became the first woman to do so.
n For the first time the oath for the judges was introduced in theses Games.
n American swimmer Mark Spitz lined up for seven events and won a medal count unique in the history of the Games: seven Olympic titles and seven world records. He took part in the 4x200m one hour after his final in the 100m butterfly. As for the 200m freestyle gold, it was his third medal in three days.
n Soviet Union’s Valeriy Borzov became the first European to win the men’s sprint double on the track.
n For the first time since 1920, a team from outside the Indian sub-continent won the field hockey title, when host Germany beat Pakistan in the controversial final.
n In a controversial basketball final, the United States were defeated by the Soviet Union, thus ending the American’s 63 consecutive victories in the Games since 1936.
n Kenyan Kipchoge Keino added the 3000m steeplechase title to the 1500m that he had won in Mexico in 1968, thus making him the first runner since American James Lightbody (in 1904) to win Olympic titles at the two distances.