Teams consist of three fencers. Each fencer fights every fencer on the opposing team over a series of nine three-minute bouts, with the aim of accumulating a maximum of 45 hits to win the match. Each bout stops when one fencer reaches the next multiple of five points or time expires.

In both the Individual and Team events, athletes progress through the draw until the finals, which decides the winners of the gold medals.

In the event of a tie in a match, athletes fence for a further one minute, with one of the athletes randomly assigned priority. The first to score a hit is the winner, but if no hits are made during this time, the athlete with priority wins the bout.