The 20th Summer Olympics of 1972 were held in Munich from 26 August to 10 September. A record number of athletes and national teams arrived in Germany. For the first time, representatives of Albania, Saudi Arabia, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Somalia and a number of other countries took part in the Olympic competitions. Unfortunately, the 1972 Olympics were remembered not only for their sporting achievements.
Before the start of the Olympics in Munich, the metro was built for the first time, the city center was completely reconstructed, and the road system was re-created. The new complex of sports facilities consisted of an Olympic village for 10 thousand inhabitants, an Olympic stadium for 80 thousand seats, a sports palace, a large swimming pool, a cycle track for 13 thousand seats and other gyms and grounds. Especially for the Games, a new Olympic stadium (Olympiastadion) was built, the unusual roof design of which resembled a spider web.
Most of the Olympic venues in Munich were equipped with modern means of urgent information for that time (electronic computers, scoreboards, laser measuring devices, duplicating equipment for printing press bulletins, etc.). Television was widely used, thanks to which the Olympic Games were able to see over a billion people on all continents.
On September 5, 1972, an unprecedented tragedy occurred in the history of sports. The terrorists of the Palestinian organization managed to infiltrate one of the pavilions of the Olympic village at 4:30. They took hostage several members of the Israeli delegation, 11 of whom were subsequently killed, and a German policeman was also killed. This incident shocked the whole world, but the game was decided to continue.
The Soviet athletes faced a difficult task, they had to win 50 gold medals by the 50th anniversary of the USSR, surpassing the United States. They completed it, winning exactly 50 awards of the highest standard, the Olympians from the United States received 33 medals. In total, the participants of the USSR received 99 medals at the 1972 Summer Olympics, of which 27 were silver and 22 were bronze.
The Soviet Union men's basketball team won gold medals for the first time, beating the US team in a tense match. Two gold medals were won by Soviet boxers: Vyacheslav Lemeshev from Moscow and Boris Kuznetsov from Astrakhan. The freestyle wrestlers received five gold medals. Soviet gymnasts showed themselves at a very high level, having won several gold medals in various competitions. All the gold medals in canoeing and kayaking for both women and men went to Soviet rowers. Competitions of the XX Summer Olympic Games showed a high level of preparation of all participants. During these events, 94 Olympic and 46 world records were set.
