# Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Women's shot put

The women's shot put field event at the 1972 Olympic Games took place on September 4 & 7. Nadezhda Chizhova was very disappointed with her bronze medal finish in 1968 Olympics. She has won the (1966, 1969 and the 1971) European Athletics Championships. Since 1968 she has broken the world record six times. The only threat for the gold medal came from Margitta Gummel the defending Olympic Champion.

## Records

Standing records prior to the 1972 Summer Olympics :
| World record | Nadezhda Chizhova (URS) | 21.68 m | May 19, 1972 | Moscow, Soviet Union |
| Olympic record | Margitta Gummel (GDR) | 19.68 m | October 20, 1968 | Mexico City, Mexico |
| Broken records during the 1972 Summer Olympics |||||
| Olympic record | Nadezhda Chizhova (URS) | 21.03 m | September 7, 1972 | Munich, West Germany |

## Results

All throwers reaching 16.20 m (53 ft 2 in) and the top 12 including ties, advanced to the finals. All qualifiers are listen in blue. All distances are listed in metres.

### Qualifying

| Rank | Name | Nationality | Mark | #1 | #2 | #3 |
| 1 | Ivanka Khristova | Bulgaria | 19.20 | 19.20 | p | p |
| 2 | Marianne Adam | East Germany | 19.11 | 19.11 | p | p |
| 3 | Margitta Gummel | East Germany | 18.82 | 18.82 | p | p |
| 4 | Helena Fibingerová | Czechoslovakia | 18.66 | 18.66 | p | p |
| 5 | Nadezhda Chizhova | Soviet Union | 18.54 | 18.54 | p | p |
| 6 | Marita Lange | East Germany | 18.16 | 18.16 | p | p |
| 7 | Antonina Ivanova | Soviet Union | 17.87 | 17.87 | p | p |
| 8 | Radostina Vasekova | Bulgaria | 17.78 | 17.78 | p | p |
| 9 | Elena Stoyanova | Bulgaria | 17.70 | 17.70 | p | p |
| 10 | Ludwika Chewińska | Poland | 17.40 | 17.40 | p | p |
| 11 | Esfir Dolzhenko | Soviet Union | 17.18 | 17.18 | p | p |
| 12 | Valentina Cioltan | Romania | 16.85 | 16.85 | p | p |
| 13 | Judit Bognár | Hungary | 16.52 | 16.52 | p | p |
| 14 | Maren Seidler | United States | 16.18 | 15.63 | 16.05 | 16.18 |
| 15 | Baeg Ok-Ja | South Korea | 15.78 | x | 15.78 | x |
| 16 | Jan Svendsen | United States | 14.96 | 14.48 | x | 14.96 |
| 17 | Rosa Molina | Chile | 14.61 | 14.59 | 14.61 | 14.41 |
| 18 | Nnenna Njoku | Nigeria | 10.63 | 10.63 | 10.40 | 9.06 |

### Final

| Rank | Name | Nationality | Mark | #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | #6 |
| | Nadezhda Chizhova | Soviet Union | 21.03 WR | 21.03 | 20.36 | 20.58 | 19.97 | x | x |
| | Margitta Gummel | East Germany | 20.22 | 18.46 | 18.83 | 19.55 | 20.22 | 19.53 | x |
| | Ivanka Khristova | Bulgaria | 19.35 | 19.35 | x | 19.22 | x | 18.82 | 18.95 |
| 4 | Esfir Dolzhenko | Soviet Union | 19.24 | 18.43 | 19.24 | x | 18.74 | x | x |
| 5 | Marianne Adam | East Germany | 18.94 | 18.75 | x | 18.58 | 18.94 | 18.91 | 18.71 |
| 6 | Marita Lange | East Germany | 18.85 | x | 18.46 | 18.29 | 18.85 | 18.38 | 18.71 |
| 7 | Helena Fibingerová | Czechoslovakia | 18.81 | 18.62 | x | x | 18.59 | 18.81 | x |
| 8 | Elena Stoyanova | Bulgaria | 18.34 | 18.24 | 17.75 | 18.34 | x | 17.55 | x |
| 9 | Antonina Ivanova | Soviet Union | 18.28 | 18.28 | 17.99 | 17.98 |
| 10 | Ludwika Chewińska | Poland | 18.24 | 17.71 | 18.24 | 17.73 |
| 11 | Judit Bognár | Hungary | 18.23 | 17.93 | 17.97 | 18.23 |
| 12 | Radostina Vasekova | Bulgaria | 17.86 | 17.86 | 17.48 | 17.52 |
| 13 | Valentina Cioltan | Romania | 16.62 | 16.37 | 16.62 | x |
Key: WR = world record; p = pass; x = fault