Shooting at the 1972 Summer Olympics – 50 metre rifle three positions

Shooting at the 1972 Summer Olympics – 50 meter rifle three positions at the Games of the XX Olympiad
Venue	Schießanlage
Date	August 30, 1972
Competitors	69 from 40 nations
Winning score	1166 WR
Medalists
01 ! John Writer  United States 02 ! Lanny Bassham  United States 03 ! Werner Lippoldt  East Germany
← 1968 1976 →

01 !		John Writer	United States
02 !		Lanny Bassham	United States
03 !		Werner Lippoldt	East Germany

These are the results of the 50 metre rifle three positions at the 1972 Summer Olympics. The gold medal went to John Writer of the United States, who was the silver medalist in 1968. He went on and broke the world record with a score of 1166 points. The silver medalist was also from the United States, Lanny Bassham, who got off to a poor start, but recovered well enough to claim silver. Bassham returned 4 years later to claim gold in the same event.

Format: 50 metres; 120 shots. 40 shots prone, 40 shots kneeling and 40 shots standing. 400 possible at each distance, 1200 total points available. All ties were broken by the best score on the final string of kneeling, if still tied the best score on the final string of standing, followed by prone.