Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's javelin throw

The Men's Javelin Throw event at the 1972 Summer Olympics took place on September 2–3 at the Olympic Stadium, Munich. The qualifying standard was .

The winning margin was 2 cm which as of June 2025 remains the only time the men's javelin throw was won by less than 10 cm at the Olympics. Also as of June 2025, it is the narrowest winning margin for any javelin competition, women included, at the Olympics, the World Athletics Championships, the European Athletics Championships and the Commonwealth Games.

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

Results

Qualifying round Rank Series Athlete Nationality #1 #2 #3 Result Notes 1 A Klaus Wolfermann 86.22 86.22 Q 2 B Jānis Lūsis 82.92 82.92 Q 3 A Hannu Siitonen 81.80 81.80 Q 4 B Miklós Németh 70.90 81.78 81.78 Q 5 A Fred Luke 81.34 81.34 Q 6 B Manfred Stolle 80.78 80.78 Q 7 A Jorma Kinnunen 80.10 80.10 Q 8 B Milt Sonsky 79.96 78.78 74.24 79.96 q 9 B József Csík 79.08 79.08 q 10 A William Schmidt 75.28 75.90 78.96 78.96 q 11 A Lolesio Tuita 75.36 78.78 77.34 78.78 q 12 A Bjørn Grimnes 77.54 77.54 q 13 B Rick Dowswell 66.54 72.52 77.42 77.42 14 A Gergely Kulcsár 77.24 77.24 15 B Urs von Wartburg 76.36 76.20 76.36 16 A André Claude 75.56 75.56 17 B Dave Travis 74.68 70.10 74.30 74.68 18 B Günther Glassauer 73.12 73.12 19 B Jacques Abehi 72.20 72.20 20 A Renzo Cramerotti 71.12 71.12 21 B Donald Velez 63.74 64.74 22 A Abdul Atif Al-Qahtani 53.06 53.06 B Leo Pusa NM A Edmund Jaworski DNS

Finals The eight highest-ranked competitors after three rounds qualified for the final three throws to decide the medals.

Rank Athlete Nationality 1 2 3 4 5 6 Result Klaus Wolfermann 86.68 85.14 88.40 90.48 84.70 90.48 OR Jānis Lūsis 88.88 89.54 81.66 90.46 90.46 William Schmidt 75.96 84.42 79.92 84.12 84.42 Hannu Siitonen 84.32 84.32 Bjørn Grimnes 71.86 82.38 83.08 83.08 Jorma Kinnunen 82.08 75.76 77.60 82.08 Miklós Németh 80.80 81.98 78.58 81.88 81.40 81.98 Fred Luke 66.64 80.06 79.70 71.46 80.06 Manfred Stolle 79.32 79.32 Milt Sonsky 77.62 77.94 72.38 77.94 Lolesio Tuita 76.34 69.38 76.34 József Csík 75.52 76.14 76.14

References