Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Women's shot put

The women's shot put field event at the 1972 Olympic Games took place on September 4 & 7. Nadezhda Chizhova was very disappointed with her bronze medal finish in 1968 Olympics. She has won the (1966, 1969 and the 1971) European Athletics Championships. Since 1968 she has broken the world record six times. The only threat for the gold medal came from Margitta Gummel the defending Olympic Champion.

Results
All throwers reaching 16.20m and the top 12 including ties, advanced to the finals. All qualifiers are listen in blue. All distances are listed in metres.

Final
Key: WR = world record; p = pass; x = fault