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Did you know that?
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1996
** Munich, West Germany was awarded the 1972 Games in 1966.
** The triangulation device to measure distances in the athletics throwing
events was introduced for the first time during the 1972 Games.
** The opening ceremony of the 1972 Munich Games was watched on television
by a live audience of 1000 million which was then a record.
** The theme for the 1972 Games was the spread of peace, but within 10 days
of the Games Palestine terrorists struck in the Village by taking Israeli
team as hostage and later killing them.
** One of the runners in the torch relay bringing the Olympic flame to
Munich was 78-year-old Edgar Fried, a former general-secretary of the
Austrian Olympic Committee, who had been in the original torch relay in 1936
at Berlin.
** German athlete Heidi Schuller, who took the oath in the 1972 Games became
the first woman to do so.
** For the first time the oath for the judges was introduced in the 1972
Games.
** American swimmer Mark Spitz in the 1972 Games won a record seven gold
medals - the maximum won by any competitor in one Games.
** Soviet Union's Valeriy Borzov in 1972 became the first European to win
the men's sprint double on the track.
** For the first time since 1920, a team from outside the Indian
sub-continent won the field hockey title, when host Germany beat Pakistan in
the final of the 1972 Games.
** In a controversial basketball final in the 1972 Games, the United States
were defeated by the Soviet Union, thus ending the American's 63 consecutive
victories in the Games since 1936.
** In the 1972 Games Kenyan Kipchoge Keino added the 3000m steeplechase
title to the 1500m that he had won in Mexico in 1968, thus making him the
first runner since American James Lightbody (in 1904) to win Olympci titles
at the two distances.
** Frank Shorter of the United States who won the 1972 marathon was
incidentally born at Munich.
** Romanian discus thrower Lia Manoliu during the 1972 Games participated in
her sixth Games since 1952, which is a record by an athlete in the track and
field events.
** American Chris Taylor who won the silver in the wrestling event of the
1972 Games, is considered to be the heaviest man to compete in the Olympics.
He weighed 186.88 kgs (412 pounds).
** American basketball player Tom Burleson in the 1972 Games was 7 ft 3 in
(2.23m) in height, thus making him the tallest ever competitor to
participate in any sport in the Olympics.
** Liselott Linsenhoff of West Germany became the first woman to win an
individual equestrian event during the 1972 Games.
** Britain's Lorna Johnstone was 70 years 5 days when she competed in the
1972 equestrian dressage event, thus making her the oldest ever female
competitor in Olympic history.
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