1972 Summer Olympics
Multi-sport event in Munich, Germany / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about 1972 Summer Olympics?
Summarize this article for a 10 years old
The 1972 Summer Olympics (German: Olympische Sommerspiele 1972), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad (German: Spiele der XX. Olympiade) and commonly known as Munich 1972 (German: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972.
Emblem of the 1972 Summer Olympics | |
| Host city | Munich, West Germany |
|---|---|
| Motto | The Cheerful Games (German: Heitere Spiele) |
| Nations | 121 |
| Athletes | 7,134 (6,075 men, 1,059 women) |
| Events | 195 in 21 sports (28 disciplines) |
| Opening | 26 August 1972 |
| Closing | 11 September 1972 |
| Opened by | |
| Cauldron | Günther Zahn[1] |
| Stadium | Olympiastadion |
Summer
Winter
1972 Summer Paralympics | |
 |
| Part of a series on |
| 1972 Summer Olympics |
|---|
|
The event was overshadowed by the Munich massacre in the second week, in which eleven Israeli athletes and coaches and a West German police officer at Olympic village were killed by Palestinian Black September members. The motivation for the attack was the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The 1972 Summer Olympics were the second Summer Olympics to be held in Germany, after the 1936 Games in Berlin, which had taken place under the Nazi regime, and the most recent Olympics to be held in the country. The West German Government had been eager to have the Munich Olympics present a democratic and optimistic Germany to the world, as shown by the Games' official motto, "Die Heiteren Spiele",[2] or "the cheerful Games".[3] The logo of the Games was a blue solar logo (the "Bright Sun") by Otl Aicher, the designer and director of the visual conception commission.[4] The hostesses wore sky-blue dirndls as a promotion of Bavarian cultural heritage.[5] The Olympic mascot, the dachshund "Waldi", was the first officially named Olympic mascot. The Olympic Fanfare was composed by Herbert Rehbein.[6] The Soviet Union won the most gold and overall medals.
The Olympic Park (Olympiapark) is based on Frei Otto's plans and after the Games became a Munich landmark. The competition sites, designed by architect Günther Behnisch, included the Olympic swimming hall, the Olympics Hall (Olympiahalle, a multipurpose facility) and the Olympic Stadium (Olympiastadion), and an Olympic village very close to the park. The design of the stadium was considered revolutionary, with sweeping canopies of acrylic glass stabilized by metal ropes, used on such a large scale for the first time.[7]