1972 Summer Olympics

From Open Encyclopedia

Games of the XX Olympiad
}}}="hiddenStructure"\| Image:1972summerolympicslogo.jpg {{{Optional caption\|}}}
Host city	Munich, West Germany
Nations participating	121
Athletes participating	7123 (6065 men, 1058 women)
Events	195 in 23 sports
Opening ceremony	August 26, 1972
Closing ceremony	September 11, 1972
Officially opened by	Gustav Heinemann
Athlete's Oath	Heidi Schüller
Judge's Oath	Heinz Pollay
Olympic Torch	Günther Zahn
Stadium	Olympiastadion

The Games of the XX Olympiad were held in 1972 in Munich, West Germany. In the bid to organise the Olympics in July 1966, Munich beat out Detroit, Madrid and Montreal.

After the 1936 Games in Berlin, it was the second time for the Summer Olympics to take place in Germany. As a counterpart to the Berlin Olympics the Munich Olympics were supposed to present a new, democratic and optimistic Germany to the world, therefore the motto of the Munich Games was "The Happy Games". The emblem was called "Bright Sun", the mascot was a (for Munich very typical) dachshund called "Waldi".

The Olympic Park consisted of several sport sites, e.g. the Olympic swimming hall, the "Olympiahalle" (a multipurpose facility) and the Olympic stadium (Olympiastadion). The Olympic village was very close to the park. The architect chosen for the sport sites was Günther Behnisch. The design of the stadium at the time of its erection was considered revolutionary; large sweeping canopies of plexiglass stabilized by metal ropes were used for the first time in such scale.

The Munich Games were marred by an act known as the Munich Massacre. On September 5, Palestinian terrorists held 11 Israeli athletes hostage in their apartment in the Olympic village for almost eighteen hours. After a failed rescue attempt at the military airport of Fürstenfeldbruck, every Israeli hostage and all but three of the terrorists were killed. All Olympic events were briefly suspended but Avery Brundage, the IOC President, decided that "The Games must go on" and so they were continued a day later.

1 Highlights
2 Medals awarded
3 Medal count
4 Nations
5 See also
6 External links
- 6.1 Bibliography

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Highlights

Mark Spitz set a World Record when he won seven gold medals in one Olympics, bringing his total to nine. A Jew, Spitz was forced to leave Munich before the closing ceremonies for his own protection, after fears arose that he would be an additional target of those responsible for the Munich Massacre.
Olga Korbut, a tiny Soviet gymnast, became a media star after winning a gold medal in the Team Competition event, failing to win in the individual all-around after a fall, and finally winning two gold medals in the Balance Beam and the Floor Exercise events.
This was the first Summer Olympiad to have an officially named mascot: Waldi the Dachshund dog.
Lasse Virén of Finland won the 5000 and 10000 m (the latter after a fall), a feat he would repeat in the 1976 Summer Olympics.
Valeri Borzov won both the 100 m and 200 m in track and field.
Also in track and field, two African-American 400 m runners, Vincent Matthews and Wayne Collett, acted disrespectfully on the medal stand, twirling their medals (gold and silver, respectively) and joking with one another as the Star-Spangled Banner was being played during the award ceremony. They were banned from the Olympics for life, as were Tommie Smith and John Carlos in the 1968 Summer Olympics.
Australian swimmer Shane Gould won three gold medals and two silver.
Handball (last held in 1936) and Archery (last held in 1920) returned as Olympic sports after a long absence. The US men's team consisted of a mish mash of athletes who were proficent at their respective sports. Their opening game was against the highly ranked Yugoslavian team. The US team lost but almost pulled an upset.
Slalom canoeing was held for the first time at the Olympics.
Dan Gable won the gold medal in wrestling without having a single point scored against him.
Wim Ruska became the first judoka to win two gold medals.
For the first time, the Olympic Oath was taken by a representative of the referees.
In basketball, the United States' Olympic winning streak, which started in 1936, was ended by the Soviet Union team's close victory in the final game. The last three seconds, subsequently hotly protested, were replayed two times before the Aleksander Belov's winning throw, on the unprecedented insistence of Olympic officials who acted on the pretext that referee error compelled additional time. US protest, filed after the match, was denied by FIBA and the Soviet Union athletes were awarded gold medals. The US team refused to accept the silver medal.[1]
On September 11, a small plane was stolen in Stuttgart and authorities received information that Arab terrorists were planning to drop a bomb on the final ceremonies. IOC officials and Chancellor Willy Brandt, who were attending the ceremonies, were informed. Defense minister Georg Leber had two fighter planes follow the stolen plane, with the intent of shooting it down should it approach Munich. Radar contact to the plane was lost. A short while later, radar contact to an unknown plane was established, but it turned out to be a civilian passenger aircraft. The stolen plane was never found.
Badminton and water skiing were the demo sports.
The Olympiapark, based on designs by Frei Otto, has become a landmark.

Image:MucOlympiaPark.jpg

Image:1972olympiadCOIN.jpg

Image:Waldi Olympic 01.jpg

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Medals awarded

See the medal winners, ordered by sport:

[edit]

Medal count

Top medal-collecting nations:
(for the full table, see 1972 Summer Olympics medal count)

(Host nation in bold.)

1972 Summer Olympics medal count					Image:Olympic-rings.png
Pos	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Image:Flag of the Soviet Union.png USSR	50	27	22	99
2	name={{{name\|}}}}}	33	31	30	94
3	name={{{name\|}}}}} (GDR)	20	23	23	66
4	name={{{name\|}}}}}	13	11	16	40
5	name={{{name\|}}}}}	13	8	8	29
6	name={{{name\|}}}}}	8	7	2	17
7	name={{{name\|}}}}}	7	5	9	21
8	name={{{name\|}}}}}	6	13	16	35
9	name={{{name\|}}}}}	6	10	5	21
10	name={{{name\|}}}}}	5	3	10	18