The men's 10,000 metres event at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich was held on 31 August and 3 September.

The favorites in the event included Belgium's Emiel Puttemans, Great Britain's Dave Bedford, and Finland's Lasse Virén.

[1] Both recovered, and while Gammoudi fell out of the race two laps later, Virén caught up to the front and passed Bedford to take the lead at about the 6000 m mark.

[3] He ran the final lap (the last 400 m) in 56.4 seconds; he won the gold medal, beating runner-up Puttemans by 7 m and setting a world record time of 27:38.35.

[2] The Guardian listed Virén's world record performance as the greatest sport comeback of all time.