Olympic Medals in this event

In the last lap Jürgen Kißner, a cyclist who had defected from the GDR to the FRG, touched his teammate Karlheinz Heinrichs to avoid a collision. This was interpreted by the referees, who mostly came from the Eastern Bloc, as unauthorized pushing and the West German team was disqualified. The third-placed Italians wanted to be awarded the silver medal, but they refused to do so. However, since the German team had already reached the final and the interpretation of the rules, which were only available in French, was not clear, the team of the FRG was finally awarded the silver medal.