The men's coxed pair competition at the 1988 Summer Olympics took place at Misari Regatta, South Korea.

It was Italy's fourth victory in the event, most all-time among nations over the United States and East Germany at three.

The East Germans, after winning their three gold medals consecutively from 1972 to 1980 before missing the 1984 Games due to the Soviet-led boycott, returned with a silver medal performance in Seoul by Mario Streit, Detlef Kirchhoff, and cox René Rensch.

Great Britain took its first-ever medal in the event with a bronze by Andy Holmes, Steve Redgrave, and cox Patrick Sweeney.

[2] Eight of the 18 competitors from the 1984 coxed pair Final A returned: the full Italian gold medalist crew of Carmine Abbagnale, Giuseppe Abbagnale, and Giuseppe Di Capua; the two rowers from the silver-medal Romanian crew, Dimitrie Popescu and Vasile Tomoiagă (this time joined by the 1980 fourth-place team coxswain Ladislau Lovrenschi; American bronze-medal rower Robert Espeseth; and rower Ángelo Roso Neto and coxswain Nilton Alonço from the fourth-place Brazil team.

The other two World champion nations during that time were East Germany (1983, sending a different crew) and Great Britain (whose Andy Holmes, Steve Redgrave, and cox Patrick Sweeney had won in 1986).

[5] The top three boats jockeyed for position, while Poland and Ireland never threatened to break into the advancing group.

The Soviets captured the lead from the United States in the third quarter of the course, and Yugoslavia passed the Americans as well in the final 500 metre stretch.

[5] The final heat was not competitive in terms of who would advance; Czechoslovakia fell behind early and only increased the gap as the race went on.

The top thee boats remained relatively tightly packed, with Italy building up a small lead (1.6 seconds over Great Britain and 2.3 seconds over Romania) through the first 1500 metres and holding off late pushes from the other two teams in the last 500 metres to maintain a narrow win.

Canada, in third the entire race, made an effort to catch Poland for second at the end but came up short.

The Brits made a charge in the final quarter of the race, passing the Soviets and nearly catching Bulgaria; the latter team held them off, though, and won by 0.28 seconds.

[5] The "B" final for 7th through 11th place (with only 5 boats due to New Zealand's semifinal withdrawal) was held on September 23, with 16.9 °C cloudy weather and a 1 m/s east-southeast wind.

The United States held third place through the first half of the race but once again had a slow third quarter, allowing Poland to overtake them.