Athletics at the 1972 München Summer Games:

At the Olympics, women had not been allowed to compete over any distance past 200 metres from 1928 until the 800 was restored in 1960. Thus adding the 1,500 was another step forward for women. Women had competed over 1,500 metres in the 1969 and 1971 European Championships, with Jaroslava Jehličková (TCH) and Karin Burneleit (GDR) winning those titles, respectively. They had both set world records in winning those races, but Soviet Lyudmila Bragina had bettered the world record in July 1972 at the USSR Championships. In München she broke her own world record in the first round (4:06.47) and then bettered that in the semi-final (4:05.07). In the final Berny Boxem-Lenferink (NED) led the first lap, but Bragina then took over, and increased the pace dramatically. She had a 10-metre gap at the bell and held it throughout the final circuit, finishing in a world record 4:01.38. The first five finishers also broke Bragina's world record from the semi-final and in all there were 12 marks ahead of the pre-München world record.