The venue for the 1972 Olympic hockey tournament was the Hockey Grounds at München’s Olympic Park. The format was the same as in 1968, which consisted of two eight-team groups that played a round-robin series of matches to determine the top two teams in each group, which advanced to the semi-finals. The 16 teams were chosen as follows – West Germany as the host nation; the semi-finalists from the 1968 Olympics (Pakistan, Australia, India, West Germany); Argentina as the 1971 Pan American Games Champion; and 10 teams chosen from the Fédération Internationale de Hockey (FIH) rankings as of January 1972.
For the first time since 1908 the host nation won the gold medal with West Germany defeating Pakistan, the 1968 champion, in the final, 1-0. India won bronze by defeating the Netherlands, 2-1.