Lasse Viren placed 5th in the Olympic Marathon in Montreal in 1976 not in Munich in 1972.
I saw all of Lasse Viren's Olympic finals. 1972 was the first Olympics since 1920 that had heats in the 10,000 meters. The 10K heat was run on August 31st and Viren qualified for his first Olympic Final which was run on Sept. 3rd. It may have been Lasse Viren's greatest race! Viren, was running in 5th place when he fell during the 12th lap. He was back on his feet almost immediately and he then rejoined the leaders. Viren then made a decisive move with 600 meters to go and began to drop his pursuers. He won in a world record time of 27:38.4 His last 800 was 1:56.6 and his last lap was 56.6. I would like to see that race again! On 9-10-72, Lasse won the 5K in an Olympic Record 13:26.40.
As we all know Viren won the Olympic 5,000 and 10,000 meter races again in Montreal in 1976. The 5k final was on July 30, 1976. The marathon was to start in less than 24 hours. After that day's events, we were sitting alongside the sidewalk outside the stadium and Lasse Viren jogged by with his racing shoes in his hand. One of my friends called out to him "Are you going to run the marathon tomorrow". The reply was "Yes". He did! He placed 5th in 2:13:11! Lasse Viren was some runner!