Rowing at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's eight
The men's eight competition at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich took place from 27 August to 2 September at the Olympic Reggatta Course in Oberschleißheim.
Results
Heats
Top three of each heat qualify to the semifinal round, remainder goes to the repechage. NOTE: the coxswain for each team is listed in the ninth position.Heat 1
| Rank | Rower | Country | Time |
| 1 | Lawrence Terry Franklin Hobbs Pete Raymond Tim Mickelson Gene Clapp Bill Hobbs Cleve Livingston Mike Livingston Paul Hoffman | 6:06.01 | |
| 2 | Reinhard Wendemuth Frithjof Henckel Norbert Kindlmann Wolfgang Hottenrott Hans-Ulrich Buchholz Günter Petersmann Bernd Truschinski Winfried Ringwald Manfred Klein | 6:10.28 | |
| 3 | Martin Hinterleitner Norbert Hlobil Kurt Sandhäugl Peter Preiß Manfred Ruthner Peter Bredl Karl Sinzinger Franz Nitsche Peter Wetzstein | 6:20.60 | |
| 4 | Renzo Bulgarello Gianfranco Grasselli Francesco Pigozzo Giuliano Galiazzo Giuseppe Noal Maurizio Danielli Serafino Carminati Giuliano Rossi Mariano Gottifredi | 6:21.80 | |
| 5 | Jean-Luc Correia Bernard Bruand Jean-Jacques Mulot Philippe Cabut Jean Perrot Jacques Filippini Yves Oger Gérard Boyer Yves Rebelle | 6:32.47 |
Heat 2
| Rank | Rower | Country | Time |
| 1 | Tony Hurt Wybo Veldman Dick Joyce John Hunter Lindsay Wilson Joe Earl Trevor Coker Gary Robertson Simon Dickie | 6:06.19 | |
| 2 | Zoltán Melis András Pályi Antal Gelley Béla Zsitnik Jr. László Romvári Péter Kokas Imre Dávid Ágoston Bányai Róbert Örlschléger | 6:17.51 | |
| 3 | Juan Carlos Estol Ignacio Ruiz Guillermo Segurado Héctor Biassini Ricardo José Rodríguez Alfredo Martín Oscar de Dios Hugo Aberastegui Raúl Mazerati | 6:20.31 | |
| 4 | Jerzy Ulczyński Marian Siejkowski Krzysztof Marek Jan Młodzikowski Grzegorz Stellak Marian Drażdżewski Ryszard Giło Sławomir Maciejowski Ryszard Kubiak | 6:26.95 | |
| 5 | Josip Despot Zdravko Gracin Mladen Ninić Romano Bajlo Zdravko Huljev Stevo Macura Janez Grbelja Josip Bajlo Jadran Radovčić | 6:27.82 |
Heat 3
| Rank | Rower | Country | Time |
| 1 | Aleksandr Ryazankin Viktor Dementyev Sergey Kolyaskin Aleksandr Shitov Valery Bisarnov Boris Vorobyov Vladimir Savelov Aleksandr Martyshkin Viktor Mikheyev | 6:12.35 | |
| 2 | Henk Rouwé Jannes Munneke Frank Mulder Jan van der Vliet Herman Eggink Hans Huisinga Bram Tuinzing Pieter Offens Rutger Stuffken | 6:13.03 | |
| 3 | Hans-Joachim Borzym Jörg Landvoigt Harold Dimke Manfred Schneider Hartmut Schneider Manfred Schmorde Bernd Landvoigt Heinrich Mederow Dietmar Schwarz | 6:14.06 | |
| 4 | John Clark Michael Morgan Bryan Curtin Richard Curtin Robert Paver Kerry Jelbart Gary Pearce Malcolm Shaw Alan Grover | 6:14.75 | |
| 5 | Ladislav Lorenc Zdeněk Zika Pavel Konvička Zdeněk Kuba Ladislav Heythum Milan Suchopár Miroslav Vraštil Oldřich Kruták Jiří Pták | 6:17.70 |