This was the ninth appearance of the event, which is one of the five apparatus events held every time there were apparatus events at the Summer Olympics (no apparatus events were held in 1900, 1908, 1912, or 1920). Three of the top 10 gymnasts from 1952 returned: silver medalist Viktor Chukarin of the Soviet Union, fifth-place finisher Ferdinand Daniš of Czechoslovakia, and eighth-place finisher Valentin Muratov of the Soviet Union. Chukarin (the 1952 Olympic all-around champion) had won the 1954 world championships.
