The men's sabre was one of eight fencing events on the fencing at the 1988 Summer Olympics programme. It was the twenty-first appearance of the event. The competition was held from 22 to 23 September 1988. 40 fencers from 18 nations competed. Nations had been limited to three fencers each since 1928. The event was won by defending champion Jean-François Lamour of France, the fourth man to successfully defend an Olympic title in the sabre and the 11th man overall to win multiple medals in the event. It was France's third victory in the event, matching the Soviet Union for second-most all-time. Janusz Olech took silver, Poland's first medal in the event since 1968. Italian Giovanni Scalzo earned bronze.

The men's sabre was one of eight fencing events on the fencing at the 1984 Summer Olympics programme. It was the twentieth appearance of the event. The competition was held from August 3 to 4, 1984. 33 fencers from 16 nations competed. Nations had been limited to three fencers each since 1928. The event was won by Jean-François Lamour of France, the nation's first victory in the event since 1900. Marco Marin of Italy took silver and Peter Westbrook of the United States took bronze. It was the first medal in the event in many Games for each of the three nations since 1964 for France, since 1960 for Italy, and since 1904 for the United States), as the men's sabre competitions had been dominated by Hungary and the Soviet Union. With both of those nations boycotting the 1984 Games, other nations had an opportunity to win medals in the sabre.