The men's foil was one of seven fencing events on the fencing at the 1956 Summer Olympics programme. It was the twelfth appearance of the event. The competition was held on 26 November 1956. 32 fencers from 14 nations competed. Nations had been limited to three fencers each since 1928. The event was won by Christian d'Oriola of France, the second man to successfully defend an Olympic title in the foil and second man to win three medals in the event (he had a silver medal in 1948 along with gold in 1952). It was France's third consecutive and seventh overall victory in the event. As in 1952, the next two spots were taken by Italians, this time Giancarlo Bergamini and Antonio Spallino. Background This was the 12th appearance of the event, which has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1908 (when there was a foil display only rather than a medal event). Four of the nine finalists from 1952 returned: gold medalist (and 1948 silver medalist) Christian d'Oriola of France, silver medalist Edoardo Mangiarotti of Italy, fourth-place finisher Jacques Lataste of France, and eighth-plae finisher Giancarlo Bergamini of Italy. Once again, the French and Italian teams were favored. D'Oriola had added two more world championships since the Helsinki Games and come in second at the third, behind József Gyuricza of Hungary. The United Team of Germany made its debut in the men's foil. The United States made its 11th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the inaugural 1896 competition. Competition format With a smaller than usual field, the event used a three-round format. In each round, the fencers were divided into pools to play a round-robin within the pool. Bouts were to five touches. Barrages were used to break ties necessary for advancement (touches against were the first tie-breaker used to give ranks when the rank did not matter). However, only as much fencing was done as was necessary to determine advancement, so some bouts never occurred if the fencers advancing from the pool could be determined. Standard foil rules were used, including that touches had to be made with the tip of the foil, the target area was limited to the torso, and priority determined the winner of double touches. Quarterfinals: There were 4 pools of 8 fencers each. The top 4 fencers in each quarterfinal advanced to the semifinals. Semifinals: There were 2 pools