The competition was held on 26 July 1992 at the Mollet del Vallès shooting range.

The final became severely interrupted by a pistol malfunction, originally assumed to be a technical fault in the electronic target system, for Tanyu Kiryakov who was second but had to leave the competition short of finishing his ten shots.

[2] Skanåker was the first of two men to win four medals in the event, with Jin Jong-oh accomplishing the feat from 2004 to 2016.

Skanåker was a long-time Olympic competitor, having won gold in the event 20 years earlier, placing in the top 10 in both 1976 and 1980, and then taking silver in 1984 and 1988.

The 1990 world championship podium had been Spas Koprinkov of Bulgaria, Wang, and Sergei Pyzhianov of the Unified Team (who had won in 1986), all of whom were competing in Barcelona.

Iraq made its debut in the event; twelve former Soviet republics competed together as the Unified Team.

[1] With one shot left for Lukashyk, Wang, and Skanåker, the Belarusian had 649 points to the Chinese and Swedish shooters' 648.