Athletics at the 1972 München Summer Games:

The discus throwers had to be looking forward to an Oerter-less Olympics as Al Oerter had hung up his disc. The favorites in 1972 were two-time medalist and 1971 European Champion Ludvík Daněk (CZE), Jay Silvester, who had not performed well at two previous Olympics, and Sweden's Ricky Bruch, who had broken the world record in July 1972. It was hard to choose between the three, but they did come through for the medals. Silvester led from round three until the last round, when Daněk got off his winning toss of 64.40 (211-3½). Bruch was second after five rounds but was pushed back to bronze by Daněk's final throw.