The men's individual all-around competition was one of eight events for male competitors in artistic gymnastics at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

Scherbo had won the event as a member of the Unified Team in 1992; he was the 11th man to earn multiple all-around medals.

[2] Seven of the top 10 gymnasts from the 1992 Games returned: gold medalist Vitaly Scherbo of the Unified Team (now representing Belarus), bronze medalist Valery Belenky of the Unified Team (now competing for Germany), fourth-place finisher Andreas Wecker of Germany, fifth-place finisher Li Xiaoshuang of China, eighth-place finisher Lee Joo-Hyung of South Korea, and ninth-place finishers Han Yun-su of South Korea and Szilveszter Csollány of Hungary.

[2] Armenia, Barbados, Belarus, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine each made their debut in the event.

The top 36 gymnasts advanced to the individual all-around final—except that each nation was limited to 3 finalists.