The event was won by Christian d'Oriola of France, the nation's second consecutive victory in the men's foil and sixth overall.

The silver and bronze medals were won by Edoardo Mangiarotti and Manlio Di Rosa of Italy.

Six of the eight finalists from 1948 returned: gold medalist Jehan Buhan and silver medalist Christian d'Oriola of France, bronze medalist Lajos Maszlay of Hungary, fourth-place finisher John Emrys Lloyd of Great Britain (in his fourth Games), sixth-place finisher Manlio Di Rosa of Italy, and seventh-place finisher Paul Valcke of Belgium.

[3] Colombia, Ireland, Luxembourg, and Turkey each made their debut in the men's foil.

The 1952 tournament introduced byes for the fencers from the top 4 nations in the team foil event, who advanced directly to the quarterfinals.

Ties were broken through fence-off bouts ("barrages") in early rounds if necessary for determining advancement.