It was the fourth appearance of the event, which had previously been held at the Summer Olympics in 1908 and 1920 and was also part of the first Winter Games in 1924.

Seventeen figure skaters from ten nations competed.

[1] Gillis Grafström successfully defended his 1920 and 1924 title again with Austrian Willy Böckl finishing in second place as four years earlier.

Another Austrian Karl Schäfer finished fourth in this event.

He went on to win gold medals in the next two consecutive Olympic Games.