The competition exists out of three separate rounds. All athletes compete in the first round, in which they perform a compulsory routine. The second round allows the competitors to perform a routine of a maximum of 2:15 minutes, after which the athletes with the twenty-four best scores perform another routine of around 4:30 minutes. The scores are based on the individual rankings of the judges, with each position earning one point. In each round, athletes are ranked based on these ordinal points. The athlete with the fewest classification points after three rounds wins the competition.
Preview[]
Twenty-eight athletes qualified for the event with defending silver medalist Brian Orser as the reigning world champion with another chance to win gold. Orser, Brian Boitano, and Alexandre Fadeev had shared the medals at the previous three editions of the world championships and were the only three remaining competitors who had finished in the top 8 in the Olympic competition in 1984. Vladimir Kotin, Grzegorz Filipowski, and Victor Petrenko were some of the top contenders, with Christopher Bowman, Richard Zander, and Petr Barna among the outsiders.
