| Canoeing at the Games of the XX Olympiad | |
|---|---|
| No. of events | 11 |
| Canoeing at the 1972 Summer Olympics | ||
|---|---|---|
Slalom | ||
| C-1 | men | |
| C-2 | men | |
| K-1 | men | women |
Sprint | ||
| C-1 1000 m | men | |
| C-2 1000 m | men | |
| K-1 500 m | women | |
| K-1 1000 m | men | |
| K-2 500 m | women | |
| K-2 1000 m | men | |
| K-4 1000 m | men | |
At the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, seven events in sprint canoe racing were contested, and for the first time at the Olympic Games, four events in slalom canoeing were also contested, at the Augsburg Eiskanal.
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Soviet Union (URS) | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 2 |  East Germany (GDR) | 4 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| 3 |  Romania (ROU) | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| 4 |  West Germany (FRG) | 0 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| 5 |  Hungary (HUN) | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 6 |  Austria (AUT) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
 Netherlands (NED) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
 Sweden (SWE) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 9 |  Bulgaria (BUL) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 France (FRA) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 Norway (NOR) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 Poland (POL) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 United States (USA) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Totals (13 entries) | 11 | 11 | 11 | 33 | |
| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| Men's C-1 | Reinhard Eiben East Germany | Reinhold Kauder West Germany | Jamie McEwan United States |
| Men's C-2 | Walter Hofmann and Rolf-Dieter Amend (GDR) | Hans-Otto Schumacher and Wilhelm Baues (FRG) | Jean-Louis Olry and Jean-Claude Olry (FRA) |
| Men's K-1 | Siegbert Horn East Germany | Norbert Sattler Austria | Harald Gimpel East Germany |
| Women's K-1 | Angelika Bahmann East Germany | Gisela Grothaus West Germany | Magdalena Wunderlich West Germany |
| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| C-1 1000 metres | Ivan Patzaichin Romania | Tamás Wichmann Hungary | Detlef Lewe West Germany |
| C-2 1000 metres | Vladas Česiūnas and Yuri Lobanov (URS) | Ivan Patzaichin and Serghei Covaliov (ROU) | Fedia Damianov and Ivan Burtchin (BUL) |
| K-1 1000 metres | Aleksandr Shaparenko Soviet Union | Rolf Peterson Sweden | Géza Csapó Hungary |
| K-2 1000 metres | Nikolai Gorbachev and Viktor Kratasyuk (URS) | József Deme and János Rátkai (HUN) | Władysław Szuszkiewicz and Rafał Piszcz (POL) |
| K-4 1000 metres | Soviet Union (URS) Yuri Filatov Yuri Stetsenko Vladimir Morozov Valeri Didenko | Romania (ROU) Aurel Vernescu Mihai Zafiu Roman Vartolomeu Atanase Sciotnic | Norway (NOR) Egil Søby Steinar Amundsen Tore Berger Jan Johansen |
| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| K-1 500 metres | Yulia Ryabchinskaya Soviet Union | Mieke Jaapies Netherlands | Anna Pfeffer Hungary |
| K-2 500 metres | Lyudmila Pinayeva and Yekaterina Kuryshko (URS) | Ilse Kaschube and Petra Grabowski (GDR) | Maria Nichiforov and Viorica Dumitru (ROU) |