Volleyball at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Women's tournament

The women's tournament in volleyball at the 2016 Summer Olympics was the 14th edition of the event at an Olympic Games, organised by the world's governing body, the FIVB, in conjunction with the IOC. It was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 6 to 20 August 2016.

China won their third gold by defeating Serbia in the final. The United States won bronze by winning against the Netherlands.

The medals for the competition were presented by Yu Zaiqing, People's Republic of China; Anita DeFrantz, United States of America; and Chang Ung, Democratic People's Republic of Korea; members of the International Olympic Committee, and the gifts were presented by Ary Graça, Cristóbal Marte Hoffiz and Aleksandar Boričić, President and Executive Vice-Presidents of the FIVB.

Pools composition
Teams were seeded following the Serpentine system according to their FIVB World Ranking as of October 2015. FIVB reserved the right to seed the hosts as head of Pool A regardless of the World Ranking. Rankings are shown in brackets except Hosts who ranked 3rd. The pools were confirmed on 23 May 2016.

Format
The preliminary round was a competition between the twelve teams divided into two pools of six teams. This round, the teams competed in a single round-robin format. The four highest ranked teams in each group advanced to the knockout stage (quarter-finals). The sixth placed teams in each pool was ranked eleventh in this competition. The fifth placed teams in each pool was ranked ninth. The knockout stage followed the single-elimination format. The losers of the quarter-finals were eliminated and ranked fifth. The quarter-final winners played in the semi-finals. The winners of the semi-finals competed for gold medals and the losers played for bronze medals.

Pool standing procedure
In order to establish the ranking of teams after the group stage, the following criteria should be implemented:
 * 1) Number of matches won
 * 2) Match points
 * 3) Set ratio
 * 4) Setpoint ratio
 * 5) Results between tied teams (head-to-head record)

Match won 3–0 or 3–1: 3 match points for the winner, 0 match points for the loser Match won 3–2: 2 match points for the winner, 1 match point for the loser

Referees
The following referees were selected for the tournament.


 * 🇦🇷 Hernán Casamiquela
 * 🇧🇪 Arturo Di Giacomo
 * 🇧🇷 Rogerio Espicalsky
 * 🇧🇷 Paulo Turci
 * 🇨🇳 Liu Jiang
 * 🇩🇴 Denny Cespedes
 * 🇪🇬 Nasr Shaaban
 * 🇩🇪 Heike Kraft
 * Mohammad Shahmiri
 * 🇮🇹 Fabrizio Pasquali
 * 🇲🇽 Luis Macias
 * 🇵🇱 Piotr Dudek
 * 🇶🇦 Ibrahim Al-Naama
 * 🇷🇺 Andrey Zenovich
 * 🇷🇸 Vladimir Simonović
 * 🇸🇰 Juraj Mokrý
 * 🇰🇷 Kang Joo-hee
 * 🇪🇸 Susana Rodríguez
 * 🇹🇳 Taoufik Boudaya
 * 🇺🇸 Patricia Rolf

Preliminary round
All times are Brasília Time (UTC−03:00).

Pool A
   

  

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Pool B
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Knockout stage
All times are Brasília Time (UTC−03:00).

The first ranked teams of both pools played against the fourth ranked teams of the other pool. The second ranked teams faced the second or third ranked teams of the other pool, determined by drawing of lots. The drawing of lots was held after the last match in the preliminary round.

Quarter-finals
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Semi-finals
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Bronze medal match
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Gold medal match
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Statistics leaders

 * Only players whose teams advanced to the semifinals are ranked.

Best scorers

Best spikers Best blockers Best servers

Best diggers Best setters Best receivers

Source: FIVB.org

Awards

 * Most valuable player
 * 🇨🇳 Zhu Ting
 * Best setter
 * 🇺🇸 Alisha Glass
 * Best outside spikers
 * 🇨🇳 Zhu Ting
 * 🇷🇸 Brankica Mihajlović
 * Best middle blockers
 * 🇷🇸 Milena Rašić
 * 🇺🇸 Foluke Akinradewo
 * Best opposite spiker
 * Lonneke Slöetjes
 * Best libero
 * 🇨🇳 Lin Li