Shooting at the 1972 Summer Olympics
Rifle
300 m free rifle three positions	mixed
50 m rifle prone	mixed
50 m rifle three positions	mixed
Pistol
50 m pistol	mixed
25 m rapid fire pistol	mixed
Shotgun
Trap	mixed
Skeet	mixed
Running target
50 m running target	mixed

The trap competition at the 1972 Summer Olympics was an open-gender event held from 27 to 29 August 1972 at Schießanlage. There were 57 competitors from 34 nations, with each nation limited to two shooters.^[1] The 1970 and 1971 world champion and co-holder of the world record Michel Carrega of France finished a surprise second to Angelo Scalzone of Italy, who broke the world record with a near perfect performance of 199 out of 200.^[2] Bronze went to Silvano Basagni, also of Italy. Scalzone's victory was Italy's third gold medal in the last five Games; Carrega's medal was France's first medal in the trap since the nation swept the medals in 1900.

This was the 11th appearance of the men's ISSF Olympic trap event. The event was held at every Summer Olympics from 1896 to 1924 (except 1904, when no shooting events were held) and from 1952 to 2016; it was open to women from 1968 to 1996.^[3]

Four of the top 10 shooters from the 1968 Games returned: sixth-place finisher (and 1956 silver medalist) Adam Smelczyński of Poland, seventh-place finisher Aleksandr Alipov of the Soviet Union, eighth-place finisher John Primrose of Canada, and tenth-place finisher Karni Singh of India. Two-time (1970 and 1971) reigning World Champion Michel Carrega of France was favored in the event; 1969 World Champion (and 1964 Olympic gold medalist) Ennio Mattarelli was not on the Italian squad, with Angelo Scalzone and Silvano Basagni the pair from Italy.^[1]

Brazil, Kenya, Swaziland, and Syria each made their debut in the event. Great Britain made its 11th appearance, the only nation to have competed at each edition of the event to that point.

The competition used the 200-target format introduced with the return of trap to the Olympics in 1952. Only a single round of shooting was done, with all shooters facing 200 targets. Shooting was done in 8 series of 25 targets. Ties were broken by the best score in round 8, if still tied after that it goes to round 7 and continues until the tie is broken.^[1]

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Multiple	198	Multiple	Multiple
Olympic record	Ennio Mattarelli (ITA)  Bob Braithwaite (GBR)	198	Tokyo, Japan Mexico City, Mexico	15–17 October 1964 18–19 October 1968

Angelo Scalzone broke the world record, hitting 199 of 200 targets.

Rank	Shooter	Nation	1	2	3	4	Course 1	5	6	7	8	Total	Notes
	Angelo Scalzone	Italy	25	25	25	25	100	24	25	25	25	199	WR
	Michel Carrega	France	24	24	25	25	98	25	25	25	25	198
	Silvano Basagni	Italy	24	24	25	25	98	25	25	23	24	195
4	Burckhardt Hoppe	East Germany	25	25	24	21	95	24	24	25	25	193
5	Johnny Påhlsson	Sweden	23	25	24	25	97	23	25	23	25	193
6	James Poindexter	United States	24	25	22	25	96	25	24	22	25	192
7	John Primrose	Canada	25	23	22	24	94	24	25	25	24	192
8	Marcos José Olsen	Brazil	22	25	24	22	93	25	24	24	25	191
9	Ricardo Sancho	Spain	25	25	23	23	96	24	22	24	25	191
10	Eladio Vallduvi	Spain	23	24	23	24	94	25	24	24	24	191
11	Adam Smelczyński	Poland	24	23	24	20	91	25	25	25	24	190
12	Heinz Leibinger	West Germany	23	24	22	25	94	25	24	23	24	190
13	Aleksandr Alipov	Soviet Union	25	21	25	25	96	23	24	23	24	190
14	Gheorghe Florescu	Romania	23	23	25	24	95	24	24	24	23	190
15	Aleksandr Androshkin	Soviet Union	25	25	24	23	97	24	22	25	22	190
16	Guy Rénard	Belgium	24	23	25	24	96	24	23	21	25	189
17	Donald Haldeman	United States	23	24	24	24	95	21	21	25	25	187
18	Manfred Geisler	East Germany	23	24	24	24	95	22	23	22	25	187
19	Armando Marques	Portugal	25	23	24	23	95	25	21	23	23	187
20	Josef Meixner	Austria	24	21	23	23	91	23	23	25	24	186
21	Ronald Carter	Great Britain	23	23	23	22	91	24	24	23	24	186
22	Sperry Marshall	Australia	23	20	23	23	89	24	25	25	23	186
23	Fernando Walls	Mexico	23	23	23	23	92	25	23	23	23	186
24	Silvano Raganini	San Marino	22	25	23	24	94	23	24	23	22	186
25	Brian Bailey	Great Britain	24	23	21	23	91	23	23	24	24	185
26	Peter Blecher	West Germany	24	24	22	22	92	24	23	23	23	185
27	David Alkon	Mexico	24	25	25	21	95	24	21	23	22	185
28	Jean-Jacques Baud	France	24	22	21	24	91	24	23	23	23	184
29	James Platz	Canada	24	24	23	25	96	25	22	19	22	184
30	Ion Dumitrescu	Romania	22	24	24	22	92	23	25	21	22	183
31	Paul Vittet	Switzerland	22	22	25	23	92	24	21	22	23	182
32	Kim Tae-seok	South Korea	22	22	21	23	88	23	24	23	23	181
33	Egon Hansen	Denmark	24	24	21	20	89	24	19	25	23	180
34	Karni Singh	India	21	23	25	22	91	20	22	24	23	180
35	Grzegorz Strouhal	Poland	22	21	25	19	87	24	23	24	21	179
36	Armando Salvietti	Bolivia	24	23	22	22	91	25	22	20	21	179
37	Vincenzo Lucchini	Switzerland	21	22	23	24	90	20	2	22	24	178
38	Dermot Kelly	Ireland	18	23	24	21	86	22	22	25	23	178
39	Michael Carr-Hartley	Kenya	21	23	21	25	90	21	21	23	23	178
40	Fettah Güney	Turkey	21	19	25	23	88	20	22	22	25	177
41	Kim Nam-gu	South Korea	23	21	23	23	90	22	23	21	21	177
42	Gerry Brady	Ireland	21	22	23	25	91	24	21	19	21	176
43	Guglielmo Giusti	San Marino	22	21	23	23	89	21	21	22	22	175
44	Randhir Singh	India	22	22	22	22	88	22	21	23	19	173
45	Paul Cerutti	Monaco	19	21	21	23	84	22	23	21	21	171
46	Túlio Miraglia	Brazil	21	21	22	22	86	22	23	21	19	171
47	Mounzer Khatib	Syria	22	21	22	24	89	19	22	19	21	170
48	Elias Salhab	Lebanon	18	21	22	21	82	24	23	22	19	170
49	Juan Jorge Giha Sr.	Peru	21	19	22	22	84	17	23	22	22	168
50	Joseph Mesmar	Syria	22	21	21	19	83	21	18	23	22	167
51	Brian Carr-Hartley	Kenya	19	20	22	20	81	20	20	23	21	165
52	Assaad Andraos	Lebanon	23	21	19	22	85	18	22	17	21	163
53	Damrong Pachonyut	Thailand	21	22	20	20	83	20	18	19	20	160
54	Ricardo Roberts	Bolivia	19	19	19	20	77	19	19	21	20	156
55	Boonkua Lourvanij	Thailand	18	19	15	20	72	20	21	15	17	145
56	Manuel Valdes	Philippines	15	19	14	19	67	13	19	18	21	138
57	Philip Serjeant	Swaziland	17	17	16	16	66	12	11	15	18	122
—	Nicolas Rodríguez	Cuba	DNS
	Domingo Lorenxo	Dominican Republic	DNS
	Riad Yunes	Dominican Republic	DNS
	Manuel Earnshaw	Philippines	DNS
	Song Gi-Hyon	North Korea	DNS

• Official report pgs. 233 - 234