1972 Munich Olympic Games
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1972 Munich Olympic Games
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On September 5, 1972, with six days left in the Games, eight Arab commandos slipped into the Olympic Village, killed two Israeli team members and seized nine others as hostages. Later that night, all nine were killed in a shootout between the terrorists and West German police at a military airport.
Medal Count Gold Silver Bronze Total USSR
USA
East Germany
West Germany
Japan
Hungary
Bulgaria
Australia
Poland
Italy
Great Britain50
33
20
13
13
6
6
8
7
5
427
31
23
11
8
13
10
7
5
3
522
30
23
16
8
16
5
2
9
10
999
94
66
40
29
35
21
17
21
18
18The tragedy stunned the world and stopped the XXth Olympiad in its tracks. But after suspending competition for 24 hours and holding a memorial service attended by 80,000 at the main stadium, 84-year-old outgoing IOC president Avery Brundage and his committee ordered the Games to continue.
They went on without 22-year-old swimmer Mark Spitz, who had set an Olympic gold medal record by winning four individual and three relay events, all in world record times. Spitz, an American Jew, was an inviting target for further terrorism and agreed with West German officials when they advised him to leave the country.
The pall that fell over Munich quieted an otherwise boisterous Games that saw American swimmer Rick DeMont stripped of a gold medal for taking asthma medication and track medalists Vince Matthews and Wayne Collett of the U.S. banned for life for fooling around on the victory stand during the American national anthem.
The United States also lost an Olympic basketball game for the first time ever (they were 62-0) when the Russians were given three chances to convert a last-second inbound pass and finally won, 51-50. The U.S. refused the silver medal.
Munich was also where 17-year-old Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut and 16-year-old swimmer Shane Gould of Australia won three gold medals each and Britain's 33-year-old Mary Peters won the pentathlon.
Source: 1996 Information Please Sports Almanac
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