The largest Games to date. Ten days into the event, eight Palestinian terrorists broke into the Olympic Village, killed two members of the Israeli team and took nine more hostage.

In an ensuing battle all nine Israeli hostages were killed, as were five of the terrorists and one policeman.

The Olympics were suspended and a memorial service was held in the main stadium.

The International Olympic Committee ordered the competitions to resume after a pause of 34 hours.

Those events completely overshadowed American swimmer Mark Spitz's incredible seven gold medals to go with the two he had earned in 1968.

Media star of the Games was tiny Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut, whose dramatic cycle of success in the team competition, failure in the individual competition and renewed success in the apparatus finals captured the attention of fans worldwide.

Britain's Mary Rand (formerly Peters) won gold in the pentathlon after her silver in 1964.

Germany's Ulrike Meyfarth, aged just 16, became the youngest person of either sex to win an individual event when she took gold in the high jump.

British gold medals: 6