# Diving at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's 3 metre springboard

The men's 3 metre springboard, also reported as springboard diving, was one of four diving events on the Diving at the 1972 Summer Olympics programme.
The competition was split into two phases:
* Preliminary round (29 August)
    Divers performed eight dives. The twelve divers with the highest scores advanced to the final.
* Final (30 August)
    Divers performed three voluntary dives without limit of degrees of difficulty. The final ranking was determined by the combined score with the preliminary round.

## Results

| Rank | Diver | Nation | Preliminary | Preliminary | Final | Final | Final |
| Rank | Diver | Nation | Points | Rank | Points | Rank | Total |
| | Vladimir Vasin | Soviet Union | 387.72 | 3 | 206.37 | 1 | 594.09 |
| | Franco Cagnotto | Italy | 400.95 | 1 | 190.68 | 2 | 591.63 |
| | Craig Lincoln | United States | 386.79 | 4 | 190.50 | 3 | 577.29 |
| 4 | Klaus Dibiasi | Italy | 380.16 | 6 | 178.89 | 4 | 559.05 |
| 5 | Michael Finneran | United States | 378.84 | 7 | 178.50 | 5 | 557.34 |
| 6 | Vyacheslav Strakhov | Soviet Union | 392.10 | 2 | 164.10 | 10 | 556.20 |
| 7 | Falk Hoffmann | East Germany | 384.45 | 5 | 160.50 | 11 | 544.95 |
| 8 | Norbert Huda | West Germany | 355.29 | 9 | 168.87 | 8 | 524.16 |
| 9 | Carlos Girón | Mexico | 345.21 | 11 | 176.67 | 6 | 521.88 |
| 10 | Roar Løken | Norway | 344.55 | 12 | 170.37 | 7 | 514.92 |
| 11 | José Robinson | Mexico | 348.48 | 10 | 165.54 | 9 | 514.02 |
| 12 | Helge Ziethen | East Germany | 364.02 | 8 | 147.00 | 12 | 511.02 |
| 13 | Donald Wagstaff | Australia | 344.13 | 13 | did not advance | did not advance | did not advance |
| 14 | Scott Cranham | Canada | 339.21 | 14 | did not advance | did not advance | did not advance |
| 15 | Pentti Koskinen | Finland | 336.99 | 15 | did not advance | did not advance | did not advance |
| 16 | Kenneth Sully | Canada | 336.12 | 16 | did not advance | did not advance | did not advance |
| 17 | Christopher Walls | Great Britain | 332.07 | 17 | did not advance | did not advance | did not advance |
| 18 | Vladimir Kapirulin | Soviet Union | 329.46 | 18 | did not advance | did not advance | did not advance |
| 19 | Gerhard Hölzl | West Germany | 327.42 | 19 | did not advance | did not advance | did not advance |
| 20 | David Bush | United States | 327.06 | 20 | did not advance | did not advance | did not advance |
| 21 | Ion Ganea | Romania | 325.17 | 21 | did not advance | did not advance | did not advance |
| 22 | Alain Goosen | France | 322.41 | 22 | did not advance | did not advance | did not advance |
| 23 | John Baker | Great Britain | 321.15 | 23 | did not advance | did not advance | did not advance |
| 24 | Junji Yuasa | Japan | 316.95 | 24 | did not advance | did not advance | did not advance |
| 25 | Ron Friesen | Canada | 313.11 | 25 | did not advance | did not advance | did not advance |
| 26 | Salim Barjum | Colombia | 310.86 | 26 | did not advance | did not advance | did not advance |
| 27 | Porfirio Becerril | Mexico | 310.65 | 27 | did not advance | did not advance | did not advance |
| 28 | Brian Wetheridge | Great Britain | 310.53 | 28 | did not advance | did not advance | did not advance |
| 29 | Kenneth Grove | Australia | 302.91 | 29 | did not advance | did not advance | did not advance |
| 30 | Reinhard von Bauer | West Germany | 299.79 | 30 | did not advance | did not advance | did not advance |
| 31 | Rudolf Kruspel | Austria | 293.58 | 31 | did not advance | did not advance | did not advance |
| 32 | Josef Kien | Austria | 285.30 | 32 | did not advance | did not advance | did not advance |