Finland finished in 14th position in the final medal rankings, with three gold medals and eight medals overall.

Gold edit

• Pekka Vasala — Athletics, Men's 1,500m
• Lasse Virén — Athletics, Men's 5,000m
• Lasse Virén — Athletics, Men's 10,000m

Silver edit

• Reima Virtanen — Boxing, Men's Middleweight

Bronze edit

• Tapio Kantanen — Athletics, Men's 3,000m Steeplechase
• Kyösti Laasonen — Archery, Men's Individual Competition
• Risto Hurme, Veikko Salminen, and Martti Ketelä — Modern Pentathlon, Men's Team Competition
• Risto Björlin — Wrestling, Men's Greco-Roman Bantamweight

In the first modern archery competition at the Olympics, Finland entered three men. They won a bronze medal.

Men's Individual Competition:

• Kyösti Laasonen — 2467 points (→ Bronze Medal)
• Olavi Laurila — 2372 points (→ 20th place)
• Jorma Sandelin — 2278 points (→ 40th place)

Men's 100 metres

• Antti Rajamäki
  • First Heat — 10.52s (→ did not advance)
• Raimo Vilen
  • First Heat — 11.00s (→ did not advance)

Men's 1500 metres

• Pekka Vasala
  • Heat — 3:40.9
  • Semifinals — 3:37.9
  • Final — 3:36.3 (→   Gold Medal)
• Pekka Päivärinta
  • Heat — 3:40.9
  • Semifinals — 3:45.1 (→ did not advance)

Men's 5000 metres

• Tapio Kantanen
  • Heat — 13:42.0 (→ did not advance)

Men's 4 × 100 m Relay

• Antti Rajamäki, Raimo Vilen, Erik Gustafsson, and Markku Juhola
  • Heat — 39.54s
  • Semifinals — 39.30s (NR) (→ did not advance)

Men's Light Middleweight (– 71 kg)

• Mikko Saarinen
  • First Round — Bye
  • Second Round — Defeated David Attan (KEN), TKO-2
  • Third Round — Lost to Peter Tiepold (GDR), 0:5

Six cyclists represented Finland in 1972.

Individual road race

• Harry Hannus — did not finish (→ no ranking)
• Mauno Uusivirta — did not finish (→ no ranking)
• Tapani Vuorenhela — did not finish (→ no ranking)
• Ole Wackström — did not finish (→ no ranking)

Team time trial

• Kalevi Eskelinen
• Harry Hannus
• Mauno Uusivirta
• Ole Wackström

Team individual pursuit

• Raimo Suikkanen

Men's 3m Springboard:

• Pentti Koskinen — 336.99 points (15th place)

Women's 3m Springboard:

• Laura Kivelä — 236.25 points (24th place)

Women's 10m Platform:

• Laura Kivelä — 172.65 points (22nd place)

One fencer represented Finland in 1972.

Men's épée

• Risto Hurme

Three male pentathletes represented Finland in 1972, with them winning bronze in the team event.

Men's Individual Competition:

• Risto Hurme — 5094 points (→ 8th place)
• Veikko Salminen — 4852 points (→ 17th place)
• Martti Ketelä — 4849 points (→ 19th place)

Men's Team Competition:

• Hurme, Salminen, and Ketelä — 14812 points (→   Bronze Medal)

Men's Coxed Pairs

• Leo Ahonen, Leif Anderson and Antero Yli-lkkelä
  • Heat — 8:06.56
  • Repechage — 8:11.89 (→ did not advance)

Ten male shooters represented Finland in 1972.

25 m pistol

• Immo Huhtinen
• Seppo Mäkinen

50 m pistol

• Seppo Irjala
• Immo Huhtinen

300 m rifle, three positions

• Jaakko Minkkinen
• Osmo Ala-Honkola

50 m rifle, three positions

• Esa Kervinen
• Jaakko Minkkinen

50 m rifle, prone

• Jaakko Asikainen
• Esa Kervinen

50 m running target

• Pekka Suomela
• Paavo Mikkonen

Skeet

• Ari Westergård