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| XI Olympic Winter Games | |
| Nations participating | 35 |
| Athletes participating | 1006 (801 men, 205 women) |
| Events | 35 in 6 sports |
| Opening ceremony | February 3, 1972 |
| Closing ceremony | February 13, 1972 |
| Officially opened by | Emperor Hirohito |
| Athlete's Oath | Keiichi Suzuki |
| Official's Oath | Fumio Asaki |
| Olympic Torch | Hideki Takada |
The XI Olympic Winter Games were held in 1972 in Sapporo, Japan.
Top medal-collecting nations:
| 1972 Winter Olympics medal count | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos | Country | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 | Soviet Union | 8 | 5 | 3 | 16 |
| 2 | East Germany | 4 | 3 | 7 | 14 |
| 3 | Switzerland | 4 | 3 | 3 | 10 |
| 4 | Netherlands | 4 | 3 | 2 | 9 |
| 5 | United States | 3 | 2 | 3 | 8 |
| 6 | West GermanyWest Germany was the informal but almost universally used name for the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 until 1990, during which years the Federal Republic did not yet include the eastern part of Germany. Since the German reunification of 1990, the F | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| 7 | NorwayThe Kingdom of Norway is a Nordic country west of Sweden on the Scandinavian Peninsula. It has a very elongated form and has an extensive coastline along the North Atlantic Ocean, where Norway's famous fjords are found. In addition to Sweden, it borders R | 2 | 5 | 5 | 12 |
| 8 | ItalyThe Italian Republic or Italy ( Italian: Italia is a country in the south of Europe, consisting mainly of a boot-shaped peninsula together with two large islands in the Mediterranean Sea: Sicily and Sardinia. To the north, where it borders France, Switzer | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| 9 | AustriaAustria is a landlocked country in Central Europe, a federation of nine states. Austria is bordered by Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| 10 | SwedenThe Kingdom of Sweden Konungariket Sverige in Swedish) is a Nordic country in Scandinavia, in Northern Europe. It is bordered by Norway on the west, Finland on the northeast, the Skagerrak and the Kattegat on the southwest, and the Baltic Sea and the Gulf | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |