1972 Olympics Revisited (Weightlifting Medal Winners)

Weightlifting at the 1972 Olympics occurred in Munich, Germany, from August 27 to Sept.6. In 1969, the International Weightlifting Federation added two new weight classes: flyweight (52 kg), bantamweight (56 kg), featherweight (60 kg), lightweight (67.5 kg), middleweight (75 kg), light heavyweight (82.5 kg), middle heavyweight (90 kg), heavyweight (110 kg), and Superheavyweight (over 110 kg).

52-kilo / 114.6 lbs. Weight Class

Zygmunt Smalcerz of Poland won the gold medal in the new 52-kilo/114.6 lbs weight class with a total of 337.5. Smalcerz also won gold at the 1971 Worlds, bronze at the 1973 Worlds, and gold again at the 1975 Worlds. Hungarian Lajos Szűcs won the silver medal and repeated as the silver medalist one year later at the Worlds.

In 1975, he won bronze at the Worlds. Third place went to Sándor Holczreiter, also of Hungary. Holczreiter also won silver at the 1971 Worlds. Fifth-place finisher Aung Gyi of Burma broke the World Record in the snatch with a 105 kg/231 lbs lift.

56-kilo / 123.4 lbs. Weight Class

In the 56 kilo/123.4 lbs class, Imre Földi, another Hungarian lifter who placed second in the last two Olympics, took the gold this time with a World Record total of 377.5. Földi had an impressive career in weightlifting. He medaled three times in the Olympics and six times at the World Championships, winning the gold medal in 1965.

Iranian Mohammad Nassiri, who won a bronze medal at the 1966 Worlds, gold at the 1968 Olympics, gold at the 1969 and 1970 Worlds, and bronze at the 1971 Worlds, had to settle for the silver this time. Soviet lifter Gennady Chetin, who placed first at the 1971 World Championships, wasn’t able to repeat the feat, but he was able to win the bronze medal.

60-kilo / 132.3 lbs. Weight Class

Bulgarian Norair Nurikyan, who won a bronze medal at the 1971 Worlds, took the gold this time in the 60 kg/132.3 lbs class with a World Record total of 402.5. Dito Shanidze of the Soviet Union won the silver medal. Dito had also won silver at the 1968 Olympics and gold at the 1969 Worlds. János Benedek of Hungary, gold medalist at the 1970 Worlds, took the bronze medal.

67.5 kilo / 148.8 lbs. Weight Class

Mukharby Kirzhinov of the Soviet Union won the gold medal with a World Record total of 460 in the 67.5 kg/148.8 lbs class. He also broke the World Record in the clean & jerk with a lift of 177.5/391.3. Kirzhinov repeated his gold medal performance at the Worlds the following year.

Mladen Kuchev of Bulgaria took the silver medal and broke the World Record in the press with a lift of 157.5/347.2. The gold medal always seemed out of reach for Kuchev, who won the silver at the 1969, 1970, and 1973 World Championships.

In 1975, he won the bronze. Poland’s Zbigniew Kaczmarek won the bronze medal, which was a disappointment for him after winning the gold medal at the 1970 and 1971 Worlds.

75 kilo / 165.3 lbs. Weight Class

Yordan Bikov of Bulgaria won the gold in the 75 kg/165.3 lbs class with a World Record total of 485. Mohamad Traboulsi of Lebanon won the silver medal. Italy’s Anselmo Silvino, who won bronze at the 1971 Worlds, repeated the feat, finishing third again.

82.5 kilo / 181.9 lbs. Weight Class

After finishing second at the 1970 and 1971 Worlds in the 75-kilo class, Leif Jenssen of Norway moved up to the 82.5/181.9 weight class and won first place with an Olympic Record 507.5 total. Jenssen won another silver at the 1974 Worlds.

Norbert Ozimek of Poland, who won the bronze at the 1968 Olympics, moved up a notch to take the silver this time. Norbert also won the silver at the 1970 Worlds. In third place, representing Hungary, was György Horvath, who also took third at the 1971 Worlds. His 192.5 kg/424 lbs clean & jerk was an Olympic Record.

90-kilo / 198.4 lbs. Weight Class

The Soviet David Rigert was favored to win the 90 kg/198.4 lbs class and led by five kilos after the press, but he did not fare well in the snatch. Needing only 155 to maintain his five-kilo lead, he opened instead with 160 and missed it three times, eliminating him from posting a total.

So distraught was Rigert over his failure that he banged his head against the wall backstage and had to be restrained by coaches. Andon Nikolov of Bulgaria won the gold with an Olympic Record total of 525. His teammate Atanas Shopov won the silver, and Swedens Hans Bettembourg took the bronze. Hans was known for his proficiency in the press and broke eleven World Records.

The two Americans, Phil Grippaldi and Rich Holbrook, finished fourth and fifth, respectively. Holbrook set an Olympic record with a 197.5 kg/ 435 lbs clean & jerk. Grippaldi attempted a 202.5/446.4 clean & jerk, which would have earned him the bronze medal, but the weight proved too heavy.

110-kilo / 242.5 Weight Class

In the 110 kg/242.5 class, Jan Talts of the Soviet team, who had placed second in the 1968 Olympics, won the gold this time with an Olympic Record total of 580 kilos. Talts broke forty World records in his career.

Bulgarian Aleksandar Kraychev, who placed second at the 1970 Worlds and third at the 1971 Worlds, won the silver medal. Stefan Grützner of East Germany, who placed second at the 1971 World Championships, had to settle for the bronze this time.

Tragedy at the 1972 Munich Summer Games

The final weight class was scheduled for Sept. 5th, but then the unthinkable happened. Before dawn on September 5, a Palestine terrorist group broke into the Olympic Village and took hostage eleven Israeli athletes, coaches, and team officials.

Two of the hostages were killed, and a standoff in the Olympic Village lasted for almost 18 hours. A botched rescue attempt followed, and the result was devastating: the remaining Israeli hostages were killed.

Two of the victims, David Berger and Yossef Romano, were weightlifters. But the games went on nonetheless. Just 34 hours after the senseless murders, Soviet strongman Vasily Alexeev won gold in the superheavyweight weightlifting competition.

Over 110-kilo / 243 lb Weight Class

Vasily Alekseyev of the Soviet Union was the heavy favorite in the over 110-kilo class, and he did not disappoint, winning easily with an Olympic Record 640-kilo total. Alekseyev competed in his first World Championship in 1970, and he not only won the gold medal but also cleaned and jerked 227.5 kilos/501.5 lbs, the first man to do so.

He won the gold medal again at the 1971 Worlds. Winning the silver medal was Rudolph Mang of West Germany, who repeated his second-place finish at the 1973 Worlds. Taking the bronze medal was former shot putter Gerd Bonk of East Germany.

Two lifters predicted to contend for medals were Ken Patera of Team USA and Serge Reding of Belgium. Reding, who won silver at the 1968 Games, was eliminated when he failed on all three press attempts with 225 kilos/496 lbs. Patera, who had been unable to make the Olympic team as a shot-putter in 1968, placed third in the press with a lift of 212.5 kilos.

But he was unsuccessful with all three snatch attempts and was eliminated from medal contention. Patera won the silver medal at the 1971 Worlds and retired from Weightlifting after the Olympics to join the world of professional wrestling.

In an interview many years later, Alekseyev spoke about how difficult it was to focus on weightlifting after the tragic events of “Black September” the day before. “I knew many of the murdered athletes. It was difficult to focus on the competition after the murders and many of the other weightlifters performed poorly because of it.”

Bulgaria, which scored zero medals in the 1968 Olympics, won three golds and three silvers this time. They were followed by the Soviet Union, which won three golds, one silver, and one bronze. Hungary won one gold, one silver, and three bronze.

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Mark Morthier is the host of Yesterday’s Sports, a podcast dedicated to reliving memorable sports moments from his childhood days and beyond. He grew up in New Jersey just across from New York City, so many of his episodes revolve around the great sport’s teams of the 70s for the New York area.

He is also an author of No Nonsense, Old School Weight Training (Second Edition): A Guide for People with Limited Time and Running Wild: (Growing Up in the 1970s)