| 1972 Summer Olympics medals | |
|---|---|
 Mark Spitz won eight gold medals at the 1972 Summer Olympics, the most of any competing athlete. | |
| Location | Munich,  West Germany |
| Highlights | |
| Most gold medals |  Soviet Union (50) |
| Most total medals | Soviet Union (99) |
| Medalling NOCs | 48 |
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. [1] [2] 7,134 athletes representing 121 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participated, [3] which included 11 teams making their debut at the Summer Olympics: Albania, [4] Dahomey (now Benin), [5] Gabon, [6] North Korea, [7] Lesotho, [8] Malawi, [9] Saudi Arabia, [10] Somalia, [11] Swaziland (now Eswatini), [12] Togo, [13] and Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso). [14] The games featured 195 events in 21 sports across 27 disciplines. [2] [15] Kayaking, the canoe slalom, and indoor handball all made their Olympic debuts, while archery returned to the Olympic program after a 52-year hiatus. [3]
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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. [16] [17] [18] 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. [19] [20]
Athletes representing 48 NOCs received at least one medal, with 25 NOCs winning at least one gold medal. [21] The Soviet Union won the most gold medals, with 50, and the most overall medals, with 99. [21] 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. [7] [22] Colombia and Niger also won their nations' first Olympic medals of any kind. [23] [24]
Among individual participants, American swimmer Mark Spitz won the most medals at the games with seven, all of which were gold. [25] 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. [26]
