| | Venue: Stockholm Olympic Stadium. 23 competitors from 7 nations. | 
 | | Final Monday, 15th July | Pts | Score |  | 1. Paul Günther |  GeR | 6 | 79.23 |  | 2. Hans Luber |  GeR | 9 | 76.78 |  | 3. Kurt Behrens |  GeR | 22 | 73.73 |  | 4. Albert Zürner |  GeR | 23 | 73.33 |  | 5. Robert Zimmerman |  CAN | 24 | 72.54 |  | 6. Herbert Pott |  GBR | 28 | 71.45 |  | 7. John Jansson |  SWE | 32 | 69.64 |  | 8. George Gaidzik |  USA | 36 | 68.01 | 
 |  The competition was actually held from both 3 metre and 1 metre boards.Divers performed six compulsory dives - standing backward plain dive, standing forward dive with twist, standing inward piked dive with twist, standing reverse piked dive, standing reverse plain dive with twist (3 metre board) and a standing forward somersault piked dive (1 metre board) - two jury-drawn dives and four dives of the competitor's choice for a total of twelve dives.
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 |  |  | Friday, 12th July. The two divers who scored the smallest number of points in each group of the first round plus the two best scoring non-qualified divers of all groups advanced to the final. Ordinal placings were used to rank divers within the group, but were not used to determine qualification. | 
 | | Ranking | Pts | Score |  | 1. Kurt Behrens |  GeR | 6 | 80.14 |  | 2. Paul Günther |  GeR | 9 | 78.14 |  | 3. Arthur McAleenan |  USA | 15 | 68.02 |  | 4. Ernst Brandsten |  SWE | 20 | 65.02 |  | 5. Sven Nylund |  SWE | 28 | 62.60 |  | 6. Eskil Brodd |  SWE | 29 | 62.60 |  | 7. Oskar Wetzell |  FIN | 33 | 58.70 | 
 |  | | Ranking | Pts | Score |  | 1. John Jansson |  SWE | 5 | 77.77 |  | 2. Albert Zürner |  GeR | 10 | 74.64 |  | 3. Ernst Eklund |  SWE | 16 | 53.02 |  | 4. Carlo Bonfanti |  ITA | 19 | 46.81 | 
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 | | Ranking | Pts | Score |  | 1. Hans Luber |  GeR | 6 | 77.50 |  | 2. Robert Zimmerman |  CAN | 11 | 76.60 |  | 3. George Gaidzik |  USA | 16 | 74.03 |  | 4. Herbert Pott |  GBR | 17 | 73.94 |  | 5. Ernfrid Appelqvist |  SWE | 25 | 62.61 |  | 6. Axel Runström |  SWE | 30 | 58.42 |  | 7. Erik Tjäder |  SWE | 35 | 53.56 | 
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 | | Olympic Champions Men 3m Springboard |  | 2016: | Cao Yuan |  CHN |  | 2012: | Ilya Zakharov |  RUS |  | 2008: | He Chong |  CHN |  | 2004: | Peng Bo |  CHN |  | 2000: | Xiong Ni |  CHN |  | 1996: | Xiong Ni |  CHN |  | 1992: | Mark Lenzi |  USA |  | 1988: | Greg Louganis |  USA |  | 1984: | Greg Louganis |  USA |  | 1980: | Aleksandr Portnov |  URS |  | 1976: | Phil Boggs |  USA |  | 1972: | Vladimir Vasin |  URS |  | 1968: | Bernard Wrightson |  USA |  | 1964: | Kenneth Sitzberger |  USA |  | 1960: | Gary Tobian |  USA |  | 1956: | Bob Clotworthy |  USA |  | 1952: | David Browning |  USA |  | 1948: | Bruce Harlan |  USA |  | 1936: | Richard Degener |  USA |  | 1932: | Michael Galitzen |  USA |  | 1928: | Pete Desjardins |  USA |  | 1924: | Albert White |  USA |  | 1920: | Louis Kuehn |  USA |  | 1912: | Paul Günther |  GER |  | 1908: | Albert Zürner |  GER | 
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