The official results of the Men's Marathon at the 1972 Summer Olympics

Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics

At the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, 38 events in athletics were contested, 24 for men and 14 for women. There were a total number of 1324 participating athletes from 104 countries.-Men's events:-Women's events:-Medal table:-References:*...

 in Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

, West Germany

West Germany

West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

 held on Sunday September 10, 1972. The race started on 15.00h local time. A total number of 62 athletes completed the race, with Maurice Charlotin from Haiti

Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...

 finishing in 62nd and last position in 3:29:21. There were 74 competitors from 39 countries. Twelve of them did not finish.

The marathon route in the 1972 Olympics was created to resemble the mascot, Waldi

Waldi

Waldi was the first official Olympic mascot. Created for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, he was a dachshund, a popular breed of dog from Germany. Waldi was designed by Otl Aicher and modeled on a real dog, a long-haired Dachshund named Cherie von Birkenhof...

. The course was arranged so that the head of the dog faced west, with athletes running counter-clockwise, starting at the back of the dog's neck and continuing around the ears. The mouth of the dog was represented by the path through the Nymphenburg Park, and its front feet were represented by the run though the Hirschgarten. The belly was the main downtown street in Munich, and its rear feet, rear end and tail were all in the English Garden

English garden

The English garden, also called English landscape park , is a style of Landscape garden which emerged in England in the early 18th century, and spread across Europe, replacing the more formal, symmetrical Garden à la française of the 17th century as the principal gardening style of Europe. The...

, a parkland extending along the Isar River. The athletes continued along the back of the dog and entered the Olympic Stadium.

American Frank Shorter, who was born in Munich, became the first from his country in 64 years to win the Olympic marathon. As Shorter was nearing the stadium, German student Norbert Sudhaus entered the stadium wearing a track uniform, joined the race and ran the last kilometre; thinking he was the winner, the crowd began cheering him before officials realized the hoax and security escorted Sudhaus off the track. Arriving seconds later, Shorter was understandably perplexed to see someone ahead of him and to hear the boos and catcalls meant for Sudhaus. This was the third time in Olympic history that an American had won the marathon (after Thomas Hicks 1904 and Johnny Hayes 1908) — and in none of those three instances did the winner enter the stadium first.

Final ranking

Place	Athlete	Time
1		2:12:19
2		2:14:31
3		2:15:08
4.		2:15:39
5.		2:16:27
6.		2:16:30
7.		2:16:34
8.		2:16:56
9.		2:17:38
10.		2:18:36
11.		2:18:49
12.		2:18:58
13.		2:19:49
14.		2:20:02
15.		2:20:10
16.		2:20:19
17.		2:20:39
18.		2:20:44
19.		2:21:06
20.		2:21:54
21.		2:22:12
22.		2:22:19
23.		2:22:25
24.		2:22:41
25.		2:22:49
26.		2:22:56
27.		2:22:59
28.		2:23:01
29.		2:23:40
30.		2:24:00
31.		2:24:25
32.		2:24:25
33.		2:25:17
34.		2:25:29
35.		2:25:37
36.		2:25:59
37.		2:26:45
38.		2:26:52
39.		2:27:14
40.		2:28:12
41.		2:28:24
42.		2:28:31
43.		2:28:37
44.		2:29:09
45.		2:29:51
46.		2:29:58
47.		2:31:12
48.		2:31:56
49.		2:32:29
50.		2:33:22
51.		2:35:48
52.		2:37:34
53.		2:38:18
54.		2:40:38
55.		2:42:37
56.		2:45:50
57.		2:48:53
58.		2:56:11
59.		2:57:04
60.		2:57:58
61.		3:07:22
62.		3:29:21
—		DNF
—		DNF
—		DNF
—		DNF
—		DNF
—		DNF
—		DNF
—		DNF
—		DNF
—		DNF
—		DNF