1972 Summer Olympics

In the spring of 1966 in Rome, Munich was chosen as the venue for the 1972 Olympic Games.

In Germany, a record number of participants and national teams gathered. For the first time, they sent their delegates to the largest sports forum in the world: Albania , Upper Volta , Gabon , Dahomey , the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (its representatives started earlier at the Winter Olympics 1964 and 1972), Lesotho , Malawi , Saudi Arabia , Swaziland , Somalia and Togo .

Before the Olympics, significant funds were invested in beautification of Munich. Here, for the first time, a metro was built, the city center was completely reconstructed, the number of places in hotels increased from 16 to 150 thousand, and a system of access roads was almost re-created. The new complex of sports facilities included, in particular, an Olympic village for 10-15 thousand inhabitants, an Olympic stadium for 80 thousand seats, a sports palace for 15 thousand seats, a pool for 10 thousand seats, a cycle track for 13 thousand seats and other gyms and platforms.

In Munich, an Olympic village for athletes was built, a new Olympic stadium (Olympiastadion), an Olympic park , a tower 291 meters high was built .

All the Olympic venues in Munich were equipped with fairly sophisticated means of urgent information (placards, electronic computers, laser beam measuring instruments, modern multiplying equipment for newsletters, etc.). So far, there have never been at the Games such a quantity of the latest equipment installed in literally all sports arenas, as in Munich. Television was widely used, thanks to which more than a billion sports fans on all continents became spectators of Olympic competitions ^[1] .

Sailing Olympic regatta and demonstrations in water skiing took place on the Baltic coast in the city of Kiel ^[2] .

Competitions of the Olympic Games were held at a high level. During the Games, 100 Olympic and 46 world records were set ^[1] .

Seven gold medals were won by American swimmer Mark Spitz . He won at 100 and 200 meters freestyle, 100 and 200 meters butterfly and in three relay races: 4 × 100 meters and 4 x 200 meters freestyle and in the combined relay 4 × 100 meters, and in all starts, world records were set. This achievement was surpassed only in 2008 by Michael Phelps .

Finnish athlete Lasse Viren won two gold medals in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters. Moreover, while running at 10,000 meters, Viren fell at half the distance, got up and was able to finish first, setting a world record - 27 minutes 38.4 seconds ^[3]

The Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut for the first time at such a level of competition performed the most difficult gymnastic element “ Korbut Loop ” ^[4] .

For the first time in history, the US team failed to win gold medals in a basketball tournament ; in a dramatic final match, the Americans, in which no basketball players managed to score 10 points, lost to the USSR team (50:51).

( Bold host country)

Olympics attack

On September 5, 1972, the largest tragedy in the history of Olympic sports occurred. The terrorists of the Palestinian organization " Black September " at 4:30 entered the pavilion No. 31 of the Olympic village, took several members of the Israeli delegation as hostages, and in response to the belated and ill-considered actions of the Bavarian police opened fire and killed 11 hostages. For the first time, blood shed at the Olympics shocked the whole world. At an extraordinary meeting of the IOC Games, it was decided to continue.

Anti-Soviet Provocations

During the Olympic Games in Munich, there were anti-Soviet provocations:

• a number of pro-Nazi organizations in Germany (Vikingyugend, Youth Union Adler, etc.) made an attempt to hold the Anti-Olympiad in Bavaria, and armbands Königsberg, Danzig and East Prussia were made for sports teams. The Government of Germany has banned the "Anti-Olympiad" ^[5]
• a group of Ukrainian nationalists from the organization “ World Congress of Free Ukrainians ” led by their son S. Bandera burned the flag of the USSR, shouting anti-Soviet slogans and distributing leaflets of anti-Soviet content ^[5]

Commemorative coins of Germany 1972

• Olympics page . IOC official website .