Rugby sevens at the 2016 Summer Olympics was held over six days in August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro. The 2016 Olympics was the debut for rugby sevens at the Summer Olympics, though rugby union was last played at the 1924 games.
The usual laws of rugby sevens applied.
Changes
Though rugby has not been featured in the Olympics since the 1924 Summer Olympics in any form, the IOC chose to re-introduce the seven-a-side version of the sport for the games. The sport featured for the 2016 and the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Venue
The rugby competition took place in a temporary arena at Deodoro Stadium. The original plan was to stage the rugby matches at the São Januário Stadium. However this was scrapped because the club in charge of the venue missed the deadline to present its project. The Organising Committee considered Estádio Olímpico João Havelange, which would have had to have been shared with the athletics competitions. It was later announced that the rugby competition will take place in a temporary arena at Deodoro Stadium, shared with the modern pentathlon. In April 2016 concerns were raised by the World Rugby head of competitions and performance, Mark Egan, about progress of construction at the temporary 15,000-seater stadium.
Qualification
Brazil men’s and women’s teams automatically qualified for the events. Qualification began with the 2014–15 Sevens World Series (men's) and 2014–15 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series, where the 4 teams at the top of the standings qualified for the 2016 Olympic Games. In June–September 2015, each of the six regional rugby unions held an Olympic qualification event, where one team from each region qualified. The final spot will be determined by a repechage tournament. It will comprise 16 teams from the regional qualifiers: 4 from Europe, 3 from Africa, 3 from Asia, 2 from Oceania, 2 from North America and 2 from South America.
As a result of Great Britain competing as one union in the Olympics and as several in international rugby (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Irish players that choose to play for the Irish Rugby Union), should one of either the England, Wales or Scotland teams qualify then Great Britain will be awarded a spot in the Olympic Games. These three British unions agreed in advance of the 2013–14 men's and women's Sevens World Series that their highest-finishing teams in that season would represent all three unions in the first stage of qualification in both 2014–15 series. The England men's and women's teams earned the right to represent the British unions in that stage of their respective competitions. The unions will then decide the composition of the Great Britain team. Players based in Northern Ireland are part of the Irish Rugby Football Union and the IRFU demanded that Northern Irish players, that have committed to play for the Irish rugby union, only play for Ireland despite being eligible under IOC rules to compete for Great Britain.
The world governing body for the sport renamed itself from the International Rugby Board to World Rugby (WR) effective 19 November 2014.
Men's tournament
Women's tournament
1. South Africa won the continental qualifier, but did not participate in the 2016 Olympics. The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee's qualification criteria do not permit qualification via the continental route. Kenya, as the second-placed team in the African qualifiers, advanced to the Olympics.
Men's competition
Group stage
Group A
Group B
Group C
Knockout stage
Women's competition
Group stage
Group A
Group B
Group C
Knockout stage
Competition schedule
The competition will run August 6–11.
In the Men's tournament, pool A consists of Fiji, Argentina, USA and Brazil. Pool B includes South Africa, Australia, France and Spain while pool C consists of New Zealand, Great Britain, Kenya and Japan.
In the Women's tournament pool A consists of Australia, USA, Fiji and Colombia. Pool B includes New Zealand, France, Spain and Kenya while pool C consists of Canada, Great Britain, Brazil and Japan.
Medal summary
Medal table
Winners
Injury replacement. IOC later provided a 13th medal to Fiji & SA for injured players.