Cross-country skiing at the 1972 Winter Olympics – Men's 30 kilometre
The men's 30 kilometre cross-country skiing competition at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan, was held on Friday 4 February at the Makomanai Cross Country Events Site.
Each skier started at half a minute intervals, skiing the entire 30 kilometre course. Vyacheslav Vedenin of the Soviet Union was the 1970 World champion and Franco Nones of Italy was the defending Olympic champion from the 1968 Olympics in Grenoble, France.Results
Sources:
| Rank | Bib | Name | Country | Time | Deficit |
| 54 | Vyacheslav Vedenin | | 1:36:31.15 | |
| 60 | Pål Tyldum | | 1:37:25.30 | |
| 36 | Johs Harviken | | 1:37:32.44 | |
| 35 | Gunnar Larsson | | 1:37:33.72 | |
| 57 | Walter Demel | | 1:37:45.53 | |
| 18 | Fyodor Simashov | | 1:38:22.50 | |
| 12 | Alois Kälin | | 1:38:40.72 | |
| 53 | Gert-Dietmar Klause | | 1:39:15.54 | |
| 58 | Stanislav Henych | | 1:39:24.29 | |
| 10 | 45 | Gerhard Gehring | | 1:39:44.47 | |
| 11 | 27 | Lars-Göran Åslund | | 1:39:45.29 | |
| 12 | 24 | Axel Lesser | | 1:39:49.24 | |
| 13 | 52 | Sven-Åke Lundbäck | | 1:39:54.35 | |
| 14 | 44 | Eduard Hauser | | 1:40:14.98 | |
| 15 | 2 | Yury Skobov | | 1:40:18.70 | |
| 16 | 43 | Vladimir Dolganov | | 1:40:48.85 | |
| 17 | 50 | Alfred Kälin | | 1:41:35.34 | |
| 18 | 8 | Gerd Heßler | | 1:41:37.47 | |
| 19 | 15 | Eero Mäntyranta | | 1:41:40.51 | |
| 20 | 38 | Elviro Blanc | | 1:41:44.32 | |
| 21 | 19 | Magne Myrmo | | 1:42:23.40 | |
| 22 | 13 | Teuvo Hatunen | | 1:42:27.18 | |
| 23 | 49 | Kunio Shibata | | 1:42:30.83 | |
| 24 | 48 | Ulrico Kostner | | 1:42:44.06 | |
| 25 | 41 | Jean-Paul Vandel | | 1:42:45.88 | |
| 26 | 47 | Mike Elliott | | 1:43:15.03 | |
| 27 | 37 | Eberhard Klessen | | 1:43:15.99 | |
| 28 | 7 | Thomas Magnusson | | 1:43:26.02 | |
| 29 | 39 | Jan Staszel | | 1:43:35.68 | |
| 30 | 23 | Mike Gallagher | | 1:43:39.41 | |
| 31 | 6 | Ole Ellefsæter | | 1:44:25.21 | |
| 32 | 9 | Renzo Chiocchetti | | 1:44:35.03 | |
| 33 | 55 | Herbert Wachter | | 1:44:45.67 | |
| 34 | 40 | Ján Fajstavr | | 1:44:49.45 | |
| 35 | 29 | Hartmut Döpp | | 1:44:51.05 | |
| 36 | 14 | Attilio Lombard | | 1:45:03.72 | |
| 37 | 32 | Hideo Tanifuji | | 1:45:37.13 | |
| 38 | 10 | Edgar Eckert | | 1:45:38.51 | |
| 39 | 26 | Petar Pankov | | 1:45:50.66 | |
| 40 | 30 | Ján Michalko | | 1:46:19.36 | |
| 41 | 21 | Werner Geeser | | 1:46:20.36 | |
| 42 | 11 | Bob Gray | | 1:46:38.31 | +10:07.16 |
| 43 | 46 | Malcolm Hunter | | 1:46:51.47 | +10:20.32 |
| 44 | 3 | Seiji Kudo | | 1:47:00.40 | +10:29.25 |
| 45 | 56 | Daniel Cerisey | | 1:47:03.01 | +10:31.86 |
| 46 | 42 | Ventseslav Stoyanov | | 1:47:11.68 | +10:40.53 |
| 47 | 22 | Tomio Okamura | | 1:47:50.22 | +11:19.07 |
| 48 | 34 | Heinrich Wallner | | 1:48:05.42 | +11:34.27 |
| 49 | 1 | Gilbert Faure | | 1:48:12.19 | +11:41.04 |
| 50 | 20 | Jan Omholt-Jensen | | 1:51:14.04 | +14:42.89 |
| 51 | 17 | Danzangiin Narantungalag | | 1:51:29.88 | +14:58.73 |
| 52 | 4 | Namsrain Sandagdorj | | 1:52:14.67 | +15:43.52 |
| 53 | 59 | Clark Matis | | 1:52:18.52 | +15:47.37 |
| 54 | 31 | Keith Oliver | | 1:54:10.60 | +17:39.45 |
| 55 | 25 | Terence Palliser | | 1:54:39.41 | +18:08.26 |
| 16 | Josef Hauser | | | |
| 28 | Roland Jeannerod | | | |
| 33 | Raimo Lehtinen | | | |
| 51 | Osmo Karjalainen | | | |
| 5 | Ján Ilavský | | | |
