Marco Galiazzo was at Beijing to defend his Olympic Gold Medal won on Athens but failed to qualify for the finals after being defeated in the Round of 32.

64 archers from 37 countries qualified for the event at the Beijing Olympics.

The 44th Outdoor Archery World championship, held in Leipzig, Germany, plus 5 continental qualification tournaments and a Final World Qualification Tournament selected 61 slots for the event, along with 3 Tripartite Commission Invitations.

This round was done entirely to seed the elimination brackets; all archers moved on to them.

The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.