Athletics at the 1972 München Summer Games:

The 1971 European Champion had been France's Jean-Paul Villain while the 1970 Commonwealth Games Champion had been Australian Tony Manning. Defending champion Amos Biwott had finished third to Manning at the Commonwealth Games, with his Kenyan teammate Ben Jipcho winning the silver medal. The world record holder was Australia's Kerry O'Brien who had run 8:22.0 in 1970. The final was started at a snail's pace, and improved only slightly to the second kilometer, after which the pace got very fast. This strung out the field and only Jipcho, Finland's Tapio Kantanen and Jipcho's teammate, Kip Keino, were together on the last lap. Keino had the best speed, having won the 1,500 metres at the 1968 Olympics. He ran away from Kantanen on the final straight as Jipcho also passed the Finn for the silver medal.