This was the 17th 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). Two of the eight finalists from 1984 returned: gold medalist Li Ning of China and eighth-place finisher Josef Zellweger of Switzerland. Two-time world champion Yuri Korolyov of the Soviet Union was injured and unable to compete in Seoul. Li had shared gold with Korolyov at the 1985 World Championships and silver with Dmitry Bilozerchev of the Soviet Union at the 1987 World Championships.
