elmer konstantin niklander was the finnish runner who won nine gold medals in 1920.
finnish runner who won nine gold medals in 1920?
elmer konstantin niklander
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athletes from 48 nocs won medals, leaving 73 nocs unrepresented on the medal table. the soviet union edged the united states in total (99 to 94) and gold medals (50 to 33). another notable rivalry took place between east and west germany. led by gymnast karin janz, who won two golds, two silvers and one bronze, east germany (66 total and 20 gold medals) beat west germany (13 gold and 40 total medals) to third place in the total medal count. east germany would nearly overtake the united states in 1976, and then finish second in the medal count in 1980 and 1988. american swimmer mark spitz won seven events, breaking the record for most gold medals by a single athlete in a single olympic games. soviet gymnast olga korbut delivered another memorable performance. she entered the olympics as an alternate on the soviet gymnastics team, and replaced an injured teammate before the start of the competition. korbut performed magnificently during the team competition and captured the global television audience with her personality. she helped the soviet team win its sixth straight olympic title and went on to win two more individual gold medals and one silver. japanese gymnast sawao kato won three gold and two silver medals, including the men's individual all-around title. this was the second individual all-around title for kato, after 1968. kato would go on to take silver in the all-around competition in 1976 to cap an olympic career medal total of eight golds, three silvers and one bronze. finnish runner lasse virén won both the 5,000 and 10,000 metre races. the 10,000 metres was won in dramatic fashion after he recovered from a fall to win and set a world record. he would repeat the double at the 1976 games.
1972 summer olympics medal table