Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
800 m	men	women
1500 m	men	women
5000 m	men
10,000 m	men
100 m hurdles		women
110 m hurdles	men
400 m hurdles	men
3000 m steeplechase	men
4 × 100 m relay	men	women
4 × 400 m relay	men	women
Road events
Marathon	men
20 km walk	men
50 km walk	men
Field events
Long jump	men	women
Triple jump	men
High jump	men	women
Pole vault	men
Shot put	men	women
Discus throw	men	women
Javelin throw	men	women
Hammer throw	men
Combined events
Pentathlon		women
Decathlon	men

The women's shot put field event at the 1972 Olympic Games took place on September 4 & 7. Nadezhda Chizhova was very disappointed with her bronze medal finish in 1968 Olympics. She has won the (1966, 1969 and the 1971) European Athletics Championships. Since 1968 she has broken the world record six times. The only threat for the gold medal came from Margitta Gummel the defending Olympic Champion.^[1]

Standing records prior to the 1972 Summer Olympics
World record	Nadezhda Chizhova (URS)	21.68 m	May 19, 1972	Moscow, Soviet Union
Olympic record	Margitta Gummel (GDR)	19.68 m	October 20, 1968	Mexico City, Mexico
Broken records during the 1972 Summer Olympics
Olympic record	Nadezhda Chizhova (URS)	21.03 m	September 7, 1972	Munich, West Germany

All throwers reaching 16.20 m (53 ft 2 in) and the top 12 including ties, advanced to the finals. All qualifiers are listen in blue. All distances are listed in metres.

Rank	Name	Nationality	Mark	#1	#2	#3
1	Ivanka Khristova	Bulgaria	19.20	19.20	p	p
2	Marianne Adam	East Germany	19.11	19.11	p	p
3	Margitta Gummel	East Germany	18.82	18.82	p	p
4	Helena Fibingerová	Czechoslovakia	18.66	18.66	p	p
5	Nadezhda Chizhova	Soviet Union	18.54	18.54	p	p
6	Marita Lange	East Germany	18.16	18.16	p	p
7	Antonina Ivanova	Soviet Union	17.87	17.87	p	p
8	Radostina Vasekova	Bulgaria	17.78	17.78	p	p
9	Elena Stoyanova	Bulgaria	17.70	17.70	p	p
10	Ludwika Chewińska	Poland	17.40	17.40	p	p
11	Esfir Dolzhenko	Soviet Union	17.18	17.18	p	p
12	Valentina Cioltan	Romania	16.85	16.85	p	p
13	Judit Bognár	Hungary	16.52	16.52	p	p
14	Maren Seidler	United States	16.18	15.63	16.05	16.18
15	Baeg Ok-Ja	South Korea	15.78	x	15.78	x
16	Jan Svendsen	United States	14.96	14.48	x	14.96
17	Rosa Molina	Chile	14.61	14.59	14.61	14.41
18	Nnenna Njoku	Nigeria	10.63	10.63	10.40	9.06

Rank	Name	Nationality	Mark	#1	#2	#3	#4	#5	#6
	Nadezhda Chizhova	Soviet Union	21.03 WR	21.03	20.36	20.58	19.97	x	x
	Margitta Gummel	East Germany	20.22	18.46	18.83	19.55	20.22	19.53	x
	Ivanka Khristova	Bulgaria	19.35	19.35	x	19.22	x	18.82	18.95
4	Esfir Dolzhenko	Soviet Union	19.24	18.43	19.24	x	18.74	x	x
5	Marianne Adam	East Germany	18.94	18.75	x	18.58	18.94	18.91	18.71
6	Marita Lange	East Germany	18.85	x	18.46	18.29	18.85	18.38	18.71
7	Helena Fibingerová	Czechoslovakia	18.81	18.62	x	x	18.59	18.81	x
8	Elena Stoyanova	Bulgaria	18.34	18.24	17.75	18.34	x	17.55	x
9	Antonina Ivanova	Soviet Union	18.28	18.28	17.99	17.98
10	Ludwika Chewińska	Poland	18.24	17.71	18.24	17.73
11	Judit Bognár	Hungary	18.23	17.93	17.97	18.23
12	Radostina Vasekova	Bulgaria	17.86	17.86	17.48	17.52
13	Valentina Cioltan	Romania	16.62	16.37	16.62	x

Key: WR = world record; p = pass; x = fault

• Official report