These Olympics are most often remembered for the terrorist attack that resulted in the death of 11 Israeli athletes. Then-IOC President Avery Brundage made the controversial decision to continue the Games.
On the court, the Americans lost the gold medal in basketball for the first time during the Cold War. The U.S.S.R. won the final game 51-50, after confusion over the time remaining on the clock allowed the Soviets to play the final three seconds of the game twice; the second time, they scored the winning goal. The U.S. team protested the outcome, did not attend the medal ceremony and did not accept the silver medal.

Rosters:
1. USSR (Anatoli Poliwoda, Modestas Paulauskas, Surab Sakandelidse, Alschan Scharmuchamedow, Alexander Boloschew, Iwan Jedeschko, Sergej Below, Michail Korkija, Iwan Dworni, Gennadi Wolnow, Alexander Below, Sergej Kowalenko)
2. USA (Kenneth Davis, Douglas Collins, Thomas "Tom" Henderson, Michael Bantom, Robert Jones, Dwight Jones, James Forbes, James Brewer, Tommy Burleson, Thomas McMillen, Kevin Joyce, Ed Ratleff)
3. Cuba (Juan Domecq, Ruperto Herrera, Juan Roca, Pedro Chappé, José Miguel Alvarez Pozo, Rafael Canizares, Conrado Perez, Miguel Calderon, Tomas Herrera, Oscar Varona, Alejandro Urgelles, Franklin Standard)