Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's 800 metres

Men's 800 metres at the Games of the XX Olympiad
Venue	Olympic Stadium
Dates	September 2
Medalists
Dave Wottle   United States   Yevgeniy Arzhanov   Soviet Union   Mike Boit   Kenya

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 men's 800 metres at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany took place on September 2, 1972.

Summary

The race went out very quickly for the first 200 m, with the two Kenyans, Boit and Ouko, pushing the pace. Wottle lagged far behind the rest of the field for the first 300 m, only catching up to the pack around the end of the first lap; the leaders went through the first 400 m in 52.3 seconds. Yevgeniy Arzhanov, the pre-race favorite, made a strong move on the final backstretch, and with only 18 m remaining seemed to have clinched the victory; Wottle's final burst of speed, however, brought him across the line nine inches (23 cm) ahead of Arzhanov, who stumbled and fell in desperation in the final step of the race.

Few had expected Wottle, who had suffered tendinitis in his knees earlier that summer, to defeat Arzhanov, as the Soviet had not lost an 800 m final in four years, and the American win over their Cold War rivals added extra drama to an already exciting race; Wottle himself was so surprised at winning the race that he forgot to remove his golf cap when the U.S. national anthem was played at the medal ceremony. When reporters later asked him if his failure to remove the cap, a good luck charm which he always wore while racing, was a protest against the Vietnam War, Wottle replied that he had merely forgotten and formally apologized to the American people.

Final

Rank	Athlete	Time
	David Wottle (USA)	1:45.86
	Yevgeniy Arzhanov (URS)	1:45.89
	Mike Boit (KEN)	1:46.01
4	Franz-Josef Kemper (FRG)	1:46.50
5	Robert Ouko (KEN)	1:46.53
6	Andy Carter (GBR)	1:46.55
7	Andrzej Kupczyk (POL)	1:47.10
8	Dieter Fromm (GDR)	1:47.96

See also

• Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics
• 800 metres

References

• Results
• Video of the Race