The men's épée was one of ten fencing events on the fencing at the 1996 Summer Olympics programme. It was the twenty-second appearance of the event. The competition was held on 20 July 1996. 45 fencers from 21 nations competed, a sharply reduced number from prior Games which generally had 60 to 80 fencers. Each nation remained limited to 3 fencers in the event. The event was won by Aleksandr Beketov of Russia, the nation's first victory and first medal in the event in its debut (though it was the third straight Games with a Russian on the podium, with Andrey Shuvalov taking bronze for the Soviet Union in 1988 and Pavel Kolobkov earning silver representing the Unified Team in 1992). Iván Trevejo's silver was Cuba's first medal in the event since Ramón Fonst won the first two gold medals in