It has been 50 years since the Olympic Games in Sapporo and Munich in 1972, as well as the Stoke Mandeville held in Heidelberg. They were very significant Games that are remembered for their legacy and tragedy.

For the first time, the Winter Olympics were held in Asia, in the Japanese city of Sapporo. The Winter Olympics in Sapporo meant the first and only gold medal of a Spanish athlete in the Winter Olympics, that of Paquito Fernández Ochoa.

That summer of 1972, Munich hosted the Olympic Games, marked by the tragedy of the Black September attack on the Olympic Village, but also by games with a legacy linked to the city and the first steps towards sustainable games.

In Heidelberg, Germany, the IV edition of the Stoke Mandeville Games was contested, where the silver medals of swimmers Bertrand de Five and Francisco Benítez stood out.

AUTORS:

Joan Manel Surroca
Expert journalist in Olympism and collaborator of the Joan Antoni Samaranch Center for Olympic and Sports Studies. Recognized with the silver category of the Royal Order of Sports Merit and that of the General Secretary of Sports on the occasion of his professional career.

Luis Sánchez
Coordinator of the Joan Antoni Samaranch Center for Olympic and Sports Studies. Sports historian and doctoral student at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Raül Vázquez
Responsible for the Joan Antoni Samaranch Center for Olympic and Sports Studies and the collection department of the Joan Antoni Samaranch Olympic and Sports Museum.