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1972 Munich Summer Games
7830 Athletes, 122 Countries, 195 Events

Just as the 1968 Mexico City Games were marked with political controversy, the 1972 Munich Games were marked by terrorism. On the morning of the eleventh day of the Olympics, September 5, Palestinian terrorists killed two Israeli athletes and kidnapped nine more. The ordeal ended with all nine hostages, five terrorists, and one policeman being killed in a clash with West German officials at a military airport. All competition was halted for 34 hours, but the Games went on.

The Munich Games set records for number of nations, participants, and events. American swimmer Mark Spitz captivated the audience in Munich and across the world by winning seven gold medals breaking seven world records along the way. Another American, Frank Shorter (Yale '69) won the marathon in 1972 becoming the first American to win the race since John Hayes in 1908. Shorter took the lead early in the race, but he was greeted by boos when he entered the Olympic stadium. It was not because the Munich crowd did not like him in fact, Shorter was born in Munich but an impostor had donned a track uniform and run a full lap around the stadium during Shorter's entrance. The crowd was not booing Shorter, as he would soon learn. Shorter returned to the 1976 Games, winning silver in the marathon.

Shorter was joined by 41 other Leaguers in Munich, including some members of the Harvard heavyweight eight crew that represented the United States in Mexico City.

Penn swimmer Eleanor S. Daniel '73 followed up her threemedal performance in Mexico City with a bronze in the 200meter butterfly.

Several members of the U.S. equestrian team hailed from the Ancient Eight. Sixtime Olympians Frank D. Chapot (Penn '55) and William Steinkraus (Yale '48) were on the jumping team that won a silver medal. Kevin Freeman (Cornell '63) won a silver medal with the threeday team.