High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! These are the results of the 50 metre rifle three positions at the 1972 Summer Olympics. The gold medal went to John Writer of the United States, who was the silver medalist in 1968. He went on and broke the world record with a score of 1166 points. The silver medalist was also from the United States, Lanny Bassham, who got off to a poor start, but recovered well enough to claim silver. Bassham returned 4 years later to claim gold in the same event.