1972 Summer Olympics medal table

The 1972 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad, were a summer multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August through 11 September 1972.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Olympedia">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 7,134 athletes representing 121 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participated,<ref name="munich">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> which included 11 teams making their debut at the Summer Olympics: Albania,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Dahomey (now Benin),<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Gabon,<ref name="Gabon IOC">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> North Korea,<ref name="North Korea IOC">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Lesotho,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Malawi,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Saudi Arabia,<ref name="Saudi Arabia IOC">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Somalia,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Swaziland (now Eswatini),<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Togo,<ref name="Togo IOC">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso).<ref name="Burkina Faso IOC">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The games featured 195 events in 21 sports across 27 disciplines.<ref name="Olympedia" /><ref name="CNN timeline">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Kayaking, the canoe slalom, and indoor handball all made their Olympic debuts, while archery returned to the Olympic program after a 52-year hiatus.<ref name="munich" />

Rhodesia had been barred from participating at the 1968 Games due to racial policies and threats by athletes to boycott the event, but in 1971, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ruled that Rhodesia would be invited to compete at the 1972 Olympic Games.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Athletes from other African nations protested this invitation and again threatened to boycott the games over those policies. Four days before the opening ceremonies, the IOC voted to rescind their invitation and exclude the Rhodesian athletes.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Athletes representing 48 NOCs received at least one medal, with 25 NOCs winning at least one gold medal.<ref name="IOC medal table" /> The Soviet Union won the most gold medals, with 50, and the most overall medals, with 99.<ref name="IOC medal table" /> North Korea and Uganda won their nations' first Summer Olympic gold medals, which was the first medal of any kind at the Summer Olympics for North Korea.<ref name="North Korea IOC" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Colombia and Niger also won their nations' first Olympic medals of any kind.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Among individual participants, American swimmer Mark Spitz won the most medals at the games with seven, all of which were gold.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Spitz also became the record holder for most gold medals at a single Olympic Games, a record that stood for 36 years until American swimmer Michael Phelps surpassed that mark with eight gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Medal table

The medal table is based on information provided by the IOC and is consistent with IOC conventional sorting in its published medal tables. The table uses the Olympic medal table sorting method. By default, the table is ordered by the number of gold medals the athletes from a nation have won, where a nation is an entity represented by a NOC. The number of silver medals is taken into consideration next and then the number of bronze medals.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> If teams are still tied, equal ranking is given and they are listed alphabetically by their IOC country code.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

At the 1972 Games, events in boxing resulted in bronze medals being awarded to each of the competitors who lost their semi-final matches, as opposed to them taking part in a third place tiebreaker.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Events in judo used a repechage system, which also resulted in two bronze medals being awarded.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In the women's uneven bars, there was a two-way tie for second, resulting in two silver medals being issued and no bronze medal being awarded.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In men's football, the third-place match ended in a tie, resulting in both teams receiving bronze medals.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Key

Template:Color box Changes in medal standings (see below) Template:Medals table

Changes in medal standings

List of official changes in medal standings

Event	Athlete (Template:Abbr)	Template:Gold1	Template:Silver2	Template:Bronze3	Net change	Comment
Cycling, men's individual road race	Template:FlagIOCathlete Template:Abbrv			–1	–1	Jaime Huélamo was disqualified for doping violations.<ref name="NZ Herald 1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref> New Zealand's Bruce Biddle finished fourth, but was not awarded the bronze due to stipulations that medal winners had to be drug tested.<ref name="NZ Herald 2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref> Biddle had tried to get tested following the race on the advice of his team's manager, in the event of a disqualification, but he was turned away.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="NZ Herald 1" />
Cycling, men's team time trial	Template:FlagIOCathlete			–1	–1	Aad van den Hoek was disqualified for doping violations, causing the entire Dutch cycling team to lose their medals, as it was a team event.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Belgian team finished fourth, but did not receive the bronze medals because they had not been subjected to drug testing, a requirement for medal winners at the time.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="NZ Herald 2" />
	Template:FlagIOCathlete
	Template:FlagIOCathlete
	Template:FlagIOCathlete Template:Abbrv
Judo, men's 63 kg	Template:FlagIOCathlete Template:Abbrv		–1		–1	Bakhvain Buyadaa was disqualified for doping violations.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref> Neither athlete who finished third was awarded the silver, which is considered vacant.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Swimming, men's 400 metre freestyle	Template:FlagIOCathlete Template:Abbrv	–1			–1	Rick DeMont was disqualified after testing positive for ephedrine, a substance which was found in DeMont's asthma medication. DeMont had declared his asthma medication to the team, but the team had failed to clear it with the IOC, leading to his gold medal being stripped from him.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="DeMont">Template:Cite news</ref>
	Template:FlagIOCathlete	+1	–1		0
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	Template:FlagIOCathlete			+1	+1

List of official changes by country

Template:Abbr	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Net change
Template:FlagIOCteam	+1	–1		0
Template:FlagIOCteam		–1		–1
Template:FlagIOCteam			–1	–1
Template:FlagIOCteam			–1	–1
Template:FlagIOCteam	–1	+1		0

See also

• List of 1972 Summer Olympics medal winners
• All-time Olympic Games medal table
• 1972 Winter Olympics medal table
• 1972 Summer Paralympics medal table