Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's 110 metres hurdles

This was the 17th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Two finalists from 1968 returned: gold medalist Willie Davenport of the United States and sixth-place finisher Bo Forssander of Sweden. Davenport's countryman Rod Milburn was the "heavy favorite" entering the season, however. He had won 27 consecutive finals and set the world record in the 120 yards version of the race going into the U.S. Olympic trials, where he hit two early hurdles and nearly missed the team, coming in third to Tom Hill and Davenport.[2]

The Bahamas and Senegal each made their first appearance in the event; East Germany made its first appearance as a separate nation. The United States made its 17th appearance, the only nation to have competed in the 110 metres hurdles in each Games to that point.

The competition continued to use the three-round format used since 1908 (except 1960, which had four rounds) and eight-man semifinals and finals, as well as the "fastest loser" system, used since 1964. The first round consisted of five heats, with 7 or 8 hurdlers each. The top three hurdlers in each heat, along with the next fastest overall, advanced to the semifinals. The 16 semifinalists were divided into two semifinals of 8 hurdlers each; the top four hurdlers in each advanced to the 8-man final.[2][3]

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1972 Summer Olympics.

World record	Martin Lauer (FRG)	13.2	Zurich, Switzerland	7 July 1959
Olympic record	Ervin Hall (USA)	13.3	Mexico City, Mexico	17 October 1968

In the final, Rod Milburn ran the hurdles in 13.24 seconds. This was recognized as equivalent to the standing hand-timed world record of 13.2 seconds, and was a new Olympic record. When the IAAF moved to keeping records based on auto-timed results in 1977, Milburn's performance was the best to that date and was recognized as the world record.

All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)

All three rounds were on separate days for the first time.

• Official report