Like other archery events at the Olympics, it featured the recurve discipline.

This was followed by three elimination rounds (up from two in 1992), in which archers competed head-to-head in 18-arrow matches (up from 12 arrows in 1992).

In all matches, losers were eliminated and received a final rank determined by their score in that round, with the exception of the semifinals.

Michele Frangilli's score of 170 in the round of 16 was an Olympic record for 18 arrows.

Oh Kyo-Moon's score of 336 was an Olympic record for 36 arrows, R32 and R16 combined.