[3] The competition format continued the pool play round-robin from prior years.

Switzerland defeated Poland on touches received, 32–35, after the points were tied at 16–16 with bouts won 8–8.

The United States did not play the Netherlands, as both advanced while Denmark was eliminated.

[7] Great Britain defeated Chile, 26 points to 6, with a 12–2–2 individual bout result.

France did not play Great Britain, as both advanced while Chile was eliminated.

They did so in the first match of this round, with Belgium prevailing on touches received (34–35) after the individual bouts were 8–8.

Poland's best hope was for a three-way tie for second at 1–2, but was unable to defeat Germany (falling 17 points to 5).

This left Italy and Sweden at 2–0 while Portugal and the United States were at 0–2, so the third set of matches was not played as unnecessary to determine advancement.

[17] France defeated Germany again, while Italy faced Sweden for the first time and won.

In the second set of pairings, Sweden defeated Germany and Italy beat France.

This put Italy at 2–0, Sweden and France at 1–1, and Germany at 0–2 (and out of contention for the gold medal).

In the final matches, Italy bested Germany without much difficulty (17 points to 4) to give the former the gold medal and the latter fourth place.

Sweden just barely prevailed on touches received, however, winning 31–32 to take silver and give France bronze.