| Venue: Olympisch Zwemstadion. 23 competitors from 15 nations. |
| Final | Pts | Score | | 1. Pete Desjardins |  USA | 5 | 185.04 | | 2. Michael Galitzen | USA | 14 | 174.06 | | 3. Farid Simaika |  EGY | 13 | 172.46 | | 4. Harold Smith | USA | 18 | 168.96 | | 5. Arthur Mund |  GER | 29.5 | 154.72 | | 6. Ewald Riebschläger | GER | 31 | 153.86 | | 7. Alfred Phillips |  CAN | 32.5 | 149.48 | | 8. Heinz Plumanns | GER | 37 | 150.18 | | 9. Fumo Takashina |  JPN | 45 | 139.78 |
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| A point-for-place system was used (except, for reasons unexplained, in determining the silver and bronze medalists). | | The men 3 metre springboard, also reported as fancy diving. | | The competition was actually held from both 3 metre and 1 metre boards. | | Divers performed five compulsory dives from the 3 metre board – running plain header forward, standing backward header, running isander (half gainer), backward spring and forward dive, running header forward with half screw – and six dives of the competitor's choice (different from the compulsory), from either board, for a Total of eleven dives. | | For each dive, the divers were ranked according to their dive score and awarded points based on their rank for that dive. |
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| | | The three divers who scored the smallest number of points in each group of the first round advanced to the final. |
| Ranking | Pts | Score | | 1. Pete Desjardins | USA | 5 | 182.10 | | 2. Heinz Plumanns | GER | 12 | 148 | | 3. Alfred Phillips | CAN | 17 | 134.10 | | 4. Luciano Cozzi |  ITA | 20 | 129.14 | | 5. Edmund Lindmark |  SWE | 22 | 123.70 | | 6. Henk Lotgering |  NED | 29 | 112.98 | | 7. Armand Billard |  FRA | 37 | 101.44 | | 8. Josef Nasvadba |  TCH | 38 | 102.48 |
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| Ranking | Pts | Score | | 1. Michael Galitzen | USA | 5 | 178.94 | | 2. Farid Simaika | EGY | 10 | 164.96 | | 3. Ewald Riebschläger | GER | 15 | 151.20 | | 4. Julius Balasz | TCH | 20 | 139.24 | | 5. Curt Sjöberg | SWE | 27 | 129.26 | | 6. Josef Staudinger |  AUT | 28 | 128.54 | | 7. Arthur Bischoff |  SUI | 35 | 100.14 | | 8. Harry Morris |  AUS | 40 | 94.96 |
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| Ranking | Pts | Score | | 1. Harold Smith | USA | 5 | 169.70 | | 2. Arthur Mund | GER | 11 | 148.48 | | 3. Fumo Takashina | JPN | 14 | 139.82 | | 4. Maurice Lepage | FRA | 21 | 132.52 | | 5. Louis Gompers | NED | 24 | 123.24 | | 6. Federico Mariscal |  MEX | 31 | 88.84 | | 7. S. C. Mercer |  GBR | 34 | 81.84 |
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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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