Athletics at the 1972 München Summer Games:

In 1971 at the West German Championships, Hildegard Falck ran 1:58.5 to break the world record and become the first woman to officially better two minutes. (North Korea’s Dan Shin-Geum had run under two minutes twice in 1963-64, but since North Korea was not a member of the IAAF, the records were never ratified.) The 1971 European Champion had been Vera Nikolić, who had inexplicably stepped off the track in her 1968 Olympic semi-final. In round one, Bulgaria’s Svetla Zlateva ran 1:58.93 to break the Olympic record. In the final, Zlateva led for the first 600 metres, when Falck saw a small opening and went thru as the runners entered the turn. She moved into third place and overtook Zlateva and Nikolić on the curve. But Falck barely hung on, as Soviet Lithuanian Nijolė Sabaitė had the fastest finish and was less a metre down at the line.