[1] The event was won by Valeriy Honcharov of Ukraine, the nation's second victory in the parallel bars.

Li Xiaopeng of China became the seventh man to win multiple parallel bars medals with his bronze adding to his 2000 gold.

American Sean Townsend had won the world championship in 2001, but was not competing in Athens.

[1] Colombia, Malaysia, and Tunisia each made their debut in the men's parallel bars.

The United States made its 19th appearance, most of any nation; the Americans had missed only the inaugural 1896 event and the boycotted 1980 Games.