Soviet Union at the 1972 Winter Olympics

The Soviet Union (USSR) competed at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan.

Soviet Union at the 1972 Winter Olympics
Flag of the Soviet Union
IOC code	URS
NOC	Soviet Olympic Committee
in Sapporo
Competitors	78 (58 men, 20 women) in 9 sports
Flag bearer	Vyacheslav Vedenin (cross-country skiing)
Medals Ranked 1st	Gold 8 Silver 5 Bronze 3 Total 16
Winter Olympics appearances (overview)
1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988
Other related appearances
Latvia (1924–1936, 1992–)  Estonia (1928–1936, 1992–)  Lithuania (1928, 1992–)  Unified Team (1992)  Armenia (1994–)  Belarus (1994–)  Georgia (1994–)  Kazakhstan (1994–)  Kyrgyzstan (1994–)  Moldova (1994–)  Russia (1994–2014)  Ukraine (1994–)  Uzbekistan (1994–)  Azerbaijan (1998–)  Tajikistan (2002–)  Olympic Athletes from Russia (2018)  ROC (2022)

Medalists

Medal	Name	Sport	Event
Gold	Aleksandr Tikhonov Rinnat Safin Ivan Biakov Viktor Mamatov	Biathlon	Men's 4 x 7.5 km relay
Gold	Vyacheslav Vedenin	Cross-country skiing	Men's 30 km
Gold	Vladimir Voronkov Yury Skobov Fyodor Simashov Vyacheslav Vedenin	Cross-country skiing	Men's 4 × 10 km relay
Gold	Galina Kulakova	Cross-country skiing	Women's 5 km
Gold	Galina Kulakova	Cross-country skiing	Women's 10 km
Gold	Lyubov Mukhachova Alevtina Olyunina-Smirnova Galina Kulakova	Cross-country skiing	Women's 3 × 5 km relay
Gold	Irina Rodnina Alexei Ulanov	Figure skating	Pairs
Gold	Soviet Union men's national ice hockey team Vladislav Tretiak Alexander Pashkov Vitaly Davidov Viktor Kuskin Alexander Ragulin Gennadi Tsygankov Vladimir Lutchenko Vladimir Vasiliev Igor Romishevsky Yevgeny Mishakov Alexander Maltsev Alexander Yakushev Vladimir Vikulov Anatoly Firsov Valeri Kharlamov Yury Blinov Boris Mikhailov Vladimir Petrov Vladimir Shadrin Yevgeny Zimin	Ice hockey	Men's competition
Silver	Fyodor Smishov	Cross-country skiing	Men's 15 km
Silver	Alevtina Olyunina-Smirnova	Cross-country skiing	Women's 10 km
Silver	Sergei Chetverukhin	Figure skating	Men's singles
Silver	Liudmila Smirnova Andrei Suraikin	Figure skating	Pairs
Silver	Vera Krasnova	Speed skating	Women's 500m
Bronze	Vyacheslav Vedenin	Cross-country skiing	Men's 50 km
Bronze	Valery Muratov	Speed skating	Men's 500m
Bronze	Lyudmila Titova	Speed skating	Women's 500m

Alpine skiing

Main article: Alpine skiing at the 1972 Winter Olympics

Men

Athlete	Event	Race 1		Race 2		Total
		Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Sergey Grishchenko	Downhill					2:03.19	46
Sergey Grishchenko	Giant Slalom	?	39	DNF	–	DNF	–

Men's slalom

Athlete	Classification		Final
	Time	Rank	Time 1	Rank	Time 2	Rank	Total	Rank
Sergey Grishchenko	1:49.64	5	1:02.97	32	59.70	21	2:02.67	22

Women

Athlete	Event	Race 1		Race 2		Total
		Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Svetlana Isakova	Downhill					1:44.83	39
Nina Merkulova						1:44.48	37
Galina Shikhova						1:43.88	34
Galina Shikhova	Giant Slalom					1:43.74	34
Nina Merkulova						1:41.18	33
Svetlana Isakova						1:40.20	31
Nina Merkulova	Slalom	DSQ	–	–	–	DSQ	–
Svetlana Isakova		DNF	–	–	–	DNF	–
Galina Shikhova		52.07	23	53.74	18	1:45.81	19

Biathlon

Main article: Biathlon at the 1972 Winter Olympics

Men

Event	Athlete	Time	Penalties	Adjusted time 1	Rank
20 km	Rinnat Safin	1'15:22.59	7	1'22:22.59	19
	Ivan Biakov	1'17:42.78	3	1'20:42.78	12
	Viktor Mamatov	1'16:16.26	2	1'18:16.26	7
	Aleksandr Tikhonov	1'12:48.65	4	1'16:48.65	4

Men's 4 x 7.5 km relay

Athletes	Race
	Misses 2	Time	Rank
Aleksandr Tikhonov Rinnat Safin Ivan Biakov Viktor Mamatov	3	1'51:44.92

Cross-country skiing

Main article: Cross-country skiing at the 1972 Winter Olympics

Men

Event	Athlete	Race
		Time	Rank
15 km	Valery Tarakanov	46:48.32	16
	Vladimir Voronkov	46:33.43	12
	Yury Skobov	46:04.59	5
	Fyodor Smishov	46:00.84
30 km	Vladimir Dolganov	1'40:48.85	16
	Yury Skobov	1'40:18.70	15
	Fyodor Simashov	1'38:22.50	6
	Vyacheslav Vedenin	1'36:31.15
50 km	Ivan Garanin	2'50:00.78	17
	Ivan Pronin	2'49:45.59	15
	Fyodor Simashov	2'45:08.93	8
	Vyacheslav Vedenin	2'44:00.19

Men's 4 × 10 km relay

Athletes	Race
	Time	Rank
Vladimir Voronkov Yury Skobov Fyodor Simashov Vyacheslav Vedenin	2'04:47.94

Women

Event	Athlete	Race
		Time	Rank
5 km	Nina Baldycheva-Fyodorova	17:25.62	10
	Lyubov Mukhachova	17:12.08	6
	Alevtina Olyunina-Smirnova	17:07.40	4
	Galina Kulakova	17:00.50
10 km	Nina Shebalina	35:54.59	10
	Lyubov Mukhachova	34:58.56	4
	Alevtina Olyunina-Smirnova	34:54.11
	Galina Kulakova	34:17.82

Women's 3 × 5 km relay

Athletes	Race
	Time	Rank
Lyubov Mukhachova Alevtina Olyunina-Smirnova Galina Kulakova	48:16.15

Figure skating

Main article: Figure skating at the 1972 Winter Olympics

Men

Athlete	CF	FS	Points	Places	Rank
Yuri Ovchinnikov	15	6	2477.5	104.5	12
Vladimir Kovalev	7	11	2521.6	80	8
Sergei Chetverukhin	3	1	2672.4	20

Women

Athlete	CF	FS	Points	Places	Rank
Marina Sanaya	19	18	2198.6	160	18

Pairs

Athletes	SP	FS	Points	Places	Rank
Irina Cherniaeva Vasili Blagov	6	5	399.1	52	6
Liudmila Smirnova Andrei Suraikin	2	2	419.4	15
Irina Rodnina Alexei Ulanov	1	1	420.4	12

Ice hockey

Main article: Ice hockey at the 1972 Winter Olympics

Medal round

Rank	Team	Pld	W	L	T	GF	GA	Pts
1	Soviet Union	5	4	0	1	33	13	9
2	United States	5	3	2	0	18	15	6
3	Czechoslovakia	5	3	2	0	26	13	6
4	Sweden	5	2	2	1	17	13	5
5	Finland	5	2	3	0	14	24	4
6	Poland	5	0	5	0	9	39	0

• USSR 9-3 Finland
• USSR 3-3 Sweden
• USSR 7-2 USA
• USSR 9-3 Poland
• USSR 5-2 Czechoslovakia

Gold:

Vladislav Tretiak Alexander Pashkov Vitaly Davidov Viktor Kuskin Alexander Ragulin Gennadi Tsygankov Vladimir Lutchenko Vladimir Vasiliev Igor Romishevsky Yevgeny Mishakov Alexander Maltsev Alexander Yakushev Vladimir Vikulov Anatoly Firsov Valeri Kharlamov Yury Blinov Boris Mikhailov Vladimir Petrov Vladimir Shadrin Yevgeny Zimin

Luge

Main article: Luge at the 1972 Winter Olympics

Men

Athlete	Run 1		Run 2		Run 3		Run 4		Total
	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Yury Svetikov	1:00.82	44	55.01	29	54.08	30	53.78	31	3:43.69	41
Viktor Ilyin	56.12	39	55.50	37	55.21	41	55.25	39	3:42.08	37
Sergey Osipov	55.48	35	55.27	36	54.06	29	54.18	34	3:38.99	33
Yury Yegorov	55.08	28	54.58	26	54.64	35	53.70	28	3:38.00	29

(Men's) Doubles

Athletes	Run 1		Run 2		Total
	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Yury Svetikov Sergey Osipov	45.64	12	45.48	12	1:31.12	12
Yury Yegorov Viktor Ilyin	45.66	13	45.53	13	1:31.19	13

Women

Athlete	Run 1		Run 2		Run 3		Run 4		Total
	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Nataliya Omsheva	47.18	18	47.39	20	46.85	20	46.85	20	3:08.27	20
Nina Ignatyeva	46.82	15	46.84	17	46.70	17	46.09	16	3:06.45	17
Nina Shashkova	46.18	13	46.38	12	46.36	16	45.46	11	3:04.38	12

Nordic combined

Main article: Nordic combined at the 1972 Winter Olympics

Events:

• normal hill ski jumping (Three jumps, best two counted and shown here.)
• 15 km cross-country skiing

Athlete	Event	Ski Jumping				Cross-country			Total
		Distance 1	Distance 2	Points	Rank	Time	Points	Rank	Points	Rank
Mikhail Artyukhov	Individual	73.5	74.0	183.0	14	50:57.0	197.185	12	380.185	11
Vyacheslav Dryagin		66.0	70.0	146.2	35	50:29.4	201.325	9	347.525	29
Anatoly Zaytsev		66.5	68.0	158.3	26	50:10.4	204.175	8	362.475	22
Aleksandr Nosov		77.5	79.5	201.3	3	52:08.7	186.430	27	387.730	7

Ski jumping

Main article: Ski jumping at the 1972 Winter Olympics

Athlete	Event	Jump 1		Jump 2		Total
		Distance	Points	Distance	Points	Points	Rank
Anatoly Zheglanov	Normal hill	73.5	102.3	75.0	107.7	210.0	21
K'oba Ts'akadze		77.5	109.7	77.5	110.2	219.9	9
Yury Kalinin		78.5	111.8	73.5	99.8	211.6	20
Gary Napalkov		79.5	112.4	76.0	107.8	220.2	7
K'oba Ts'akadze	Large hill	93.0	69.7	90.0	95.5	165.2	35
Anatoly Zheglanov		80.5	73.7	90.0	97.0	170.7	32
Sergey Yanin		89.0	93.1	87.0	88.3	181.4	21
Gary Napalkov		99.5	111.3	92.0	98.8	210.1	6

Speed skating

Main article: Speed skating at the 1972 Winter Olympics

Men

Event	Athlete	Race
		Time	Rank
500 m	Vladimir Komarov	40.65	14
	Valery Muratov	39.80
1500 m	Valery Muratov	2:11.83	21
	Valery Lavrushkin	2:07.16	6
5000 m	Valery Lavrushkin	7:39.26	7
10,000 m	Valery Lavrushkin	15:20.08	5

Women

Event	Athlete	Race
		Time	Rank
500 m	Alle Butova	45.17	8
	Lyudmila Titova	44.45
	Vera Krasnova	44.01
1000 m	Lyudmila Savrulina	1:33.41	10
	Nina Statkevich	1:32.21	5
	Lyudmila Titova	1:31.85	4
1500 m	Lyudmila Savrulina	2:25.85	14
	Kapitolina Seregina	2:24.29	9
	Nina Statkevich	2:23.19	6
3000 m	Lyudmila Savrulina	5:06.61	8
	Kapitolina Seregina	5:01.88	6
	Nina Statkevich	5:01.79	5

Medals by republic

In the following table for team events number of team representatives, who received medals are counted, not "one medal for all the team", as usual. Because there were people from different republics in one team.

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Russian SFSR	36	6	3	45
Totals (1 entries)		36	6	3	45

Bibliography

A. Dobrov (1973). XI Winter Olympic Games. Year 1972 (in Russian). Moscow: Fizkultura i sport. Archived from the original on 2007-08-19.

References

• Official Olympic Reports Archived 2007-06-12 at the Wayback Machine
• International Olympic Committee results database
• Olympic Winter Games 1972, full results by sports-reference.com