The 1972 Munich Summer Olympics has become one of the most famous. The city has been preparing for it for many years; many new sports facilities have been built. A record number of athletes and participating countries took part in the competition. Despite this, the world remembered her not for her sports achievements, but for completely different events.
The 1972 Summer Olympics were attended by 7134 athletes from 121 countries. For the first time, their athletes were sent by Albania, Upper Volta, Gabon, Dahomey, North Korea, Lesotho, Malawi, Saudi Arabia, Swaziland, Somalia, Togo. Sets of awards were played in 23 sports. For the first time during the Olympic Games, the official mascot of the event was presented, it was the multi-colored Waldi dachshund.
According to the results of the competition, the leaders in the medal standings were athletes from the USSR, who won 50 gold, 27 silver and 22 bronze medals. Interestingly, Soviet athletes were tasked with winning at least 50 gold medals in honor of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Olympians coped with the task. The second place was taken by the US team, its athletes received 33 gold, 31 silver and 30 bronze medals. Third place went to the GDR with 20 gold, 23 silver and 23 bronze medals.
The track and field competitions were very stubborn. Soviet sprinter Valery Borzov managed to win two gold medals at once, breaking the undivided monopoly of the Americans. For domestic athletes, these were the first gold medals in the sprint. Viktor Saneev won his second gold medal in the triple jump. The Leningrad student Yuri Tarmak became the champion in high jump, having overcome the height of 223 cm. The gymnast Olga Korbut performed brilliantly, having won three medals of the highest standard and one silver at once.
Cuban boxers trained by Soviet trainer Andrei Chervonenko showed a sensational result in Munich, they won three gold medals. Boxers from the USSR with two gold medals were just a little behind them. All the gold medals, except one, went to Soviet rowers in kayaking and canoeing. In freestyle and classical wrestling, wrestlers from the USSR won 9 gold medals.
Not without sports sensations at the Olympics - in particular, the American swimmer Mark Spitz achieved unprecedented success, winning seven gold medals at once and setting seven world records.
Unfortunately, the Munich Olympics were overshadowed by the tragedy of the seizure of the Israeli team by Palestinian terrorists on September 5. A very unprofessional police attempt to free the hostages resulted in the deaths of eleven athletes and one police officer. It was this tragedy that prompted the world's secret services to create special groups to fight terrorism.
It was decided to continue the Olympics. One of the reasons for this decision was the desire to show that the efforts of terrorists cannot break the spirit of athletes, and the Olympic Games are above any political differences.
