The event consisted of three rounds: a qualifier, semifinal and a final. In the qualifier, each shooter fired 3 sets of 25 shots in the set order of skeet shooting.
The top 6 shooters in the qualifying round moved on to the semifinal round. There, they fired one additional round of 16. Ties are broken using a shoot-off; additional shots are fired one at a time until there is no longer a tie.
Records
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.