The event was marred by doping-related disqualifications, with the original first- and third-place athletes being removed.

Adrián Annus of Hungary originally won the competition, but he was disqualified after being found guilty of tampering with his sample at the doping control.

[9][10] Аs the next two finishers Eşref Apak and Vadim Devyatovskiy had both been suspended from the sport for doping offenses since 2004, the IOC decided to declare the silver and bronze medals vacant, leaving the only medalists as Murofushi with gold (in the official publication of the results, Eşref Apak is listed second, but without getting a silver medal, Vadim Devyatovskiy is listed third, but without getting a bronze medal).

Seven of the 12 finalists from the 2000 Games returned: gold medalist (and 1996 finalist) Szymon Ziółkowski of Poland, silver medalist Nicola Vizzoni of Italy, bronze medalist (and 1992 silver medalist and 1996 finalist) Igor Astapkovich of Belarus, fifth-place finisher (and 1996 finalist) Ilya Konovalov of Russia, eighth-place finisher Vladimír Maška of the Czech Republic, ninth-place finisher Koji Murofushi of Japan, and twelfth-place finisher Alexandros Papadimitriou of Greece.

For the men's hammer throw, each National Olympic Committee was permitted to enter up to three athletes that had thrown 78.65 metres or further during the qualification period.

Each finalist was allowed three throws in last round, with the top eight athletes after that point being given three further attempts.