Cross-country skiing at the 1972 Winter Olympics – Men's 15 kilometre
The men's 15 kilometre cross-country skiing competition at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan, was held on Monday 7 February at the Makomanai Cross Country Events Site.
Each skier started at half a minute intervals, skiing the entire 15 kilometre course. Lars-Göran Åslund of Sweden was the 1970 World champion and Harald Grønningen of Norway was the defending Olympic champion from the 1968 Olympics in Grenoble, France.Results
Sources:
| Rank | Bib | Name | Country | Time | Deficit |
| 54 | Sven-Åke Lundbäck | | 45:28.24 | |
| 52 | Fyodor Simashov | | 46:00.84 | |
| 34 | Ivar Formo | | 46:02.58 | |
| 57 | Juha Mieto | | 46:02.64 | |
| 23 | Yury Skobov | | 46:04.59 | |
| 35 | Axel Lesser | | 46:17.01 | |
| 61 | Walter Demel | | 46:17.36 | |
| 37 | Gunnar Larsson | | 46:23.29 | |
| 9 | Oddvar Brå | | 46:25.88 | |
| 10 | 38 | Osmo Karjalainen | | 46:27.51 | |
| 11 | 59 | Eduard Hauser | | 46:30.53 | |
| 12 | 12 | Vladimir Voronkov | | 46:33.43 | |
| 13 | 63 | Gert-Dietmar Klause | | 46:34.40 | |
| 14 | 28 | Albert Giger | | 46:38.36 | |
| 15 | 46 | Johs Harviken | | 46:46.36 | |
| 16 | 42 | Valery Tarakanov | | 46:48.32 | |
| 17 | 41 | Alois Kälin | | 46:50.31 | |
| 18 | 29 | Lars-Göran Åslund | | 46:56.23 | |
| 19 | 58 | Magne Myrmo | | 47:02.55 | |
| 20 | 15 | Tord Backman | | 47:22.97 | |
| 21 | 56 | Stanislav Henych | | 47:25.81 | |
| 22 | 36 | Gerhard Gehring | | 47:33.78 | |
| 23 | 24 | Juhani Repo | | 47:56.16 | |
| 24 | 53 | Carlo Favre | | 47:59.07 | |
| 25 | 49 | Gerd Heßler | | 48:04.15 | |
| 26 | 3 | Rainer Groß | | 48:05.86 | |
| 27 | 47 | Tonio Biondini | | 48:10.09 | |
| 28 | 22 | Franco Stella | | 48:17.14 | |
| 29 | 39 | Ján Fajstavr | | 48:18.22 | |
| 30 | 21 | Ján Michalko | | 48:31.64 | |
| 31 | 55 | Roland Jeannerod | | 48:32.42 | |
| 32 | 14 | Hartmut Döpp | | 48:46.08 | |
| 33 | 50 | Jan Staszel | | 48:46.72 | |
| 34 | 16 | Hansüli Kreuzer | | 48:55.37 | |
| 35 | 8 | Manne Liimatainen | | 48:59.90 | |
| 36 | 27 | Franz Betz | | 49:00.41 | |
| 37 | 19 | Hideo Tanifuji | | 49:06.97 | |
| 38 | 30 | Heinrich Wallner | | 49:17.97 | |
| 39 | 44 | Jean-Paul Vandel | | 49:22.89 | |
| 40 | 17 | Franco Nones | | 49:35.43 | |
| 41 | 60 | Kunio Shibata | | 49:38.95 | |
| 42 | 51 | Herbert Wachter | | 49:44.13 | |
| 43 | 40 | Akiyoshi Matsuoka | | 49:50.72 | |
| 44 | 26 | Everett Dunklee | | 49:52.20 | |
| 45 | 43 | Malcolm Hunter | | 49:54.08 | |
| 46 | 33 | Daniel Cerisey | | 50:05.88 | |
| 47 | 25 | Petar Pankov | | 50:06.74 | |
| 48 | 4 | Gérard Granclement | | 50:07.11 | |
| 49 | 62 | Fred Kelly | | 50:07.22 | |
| 50 | 32 | Roger Allen | | 50:41.31 | |
| 51 | 6 | Motoharu Matsumura | | 50:43.76 | |
| 52 | 11 | Jarl Omholt-Jensen | | 50:52.14 | |
| 53 | 2 | Ventseslav Stoyanov | | 50:54.98 | |
| 54 | 45 | Tim Caldwell | | 51:17.92 | |
| 55 | 13 | Ronny Yeager | | 51:36.54 | |
| 56 | 20 | Danzangiin Narantungalag | | 52:06.18 | |
| 57 | 1 | Namsrain Sandagdorj | | 52:48.54 | |
| 58 | 64 | Larry Martin | | 53:13.91 | |
| 59 | 48 | Terence Palliser | | 54:11.98 | |
| 60 | 31 | Peter Strong | | 54:41.99 | |
| 61 | 5 | Harry Tobin | | 56:05.05 | +10:36.81 |
| 62 | 18 | Liang Reng-guey | | | +18:07.42 |
| 7 | Josef Hauser | | | |
| 10 | Ján Ilavský | | | |
