Volleyball at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Women's tournament

Women's volleyball
at the Games of the XXXI Olympiad
Women's volleyball; at the Games of the XXXI Olympiad
Venue	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho
Date	6–20 August
Competitors	144 from 12 nations
Medalists
	← 2012 2020 →

Last updated November 09, 2025

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.

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.

Competition schedule

P	Preliminary round	¼	Quarter-finals	½	Semi-finals	B	Bronze medal match	F	Final

Sat 6	Sun 7	Mon 8	Tue 9	Wed 10	Thu 11	Fri 12	Sat 13	Sun 14	Mon 15	Tue 16		Wed 17		Thu 18		Fri 19	Sat 20
P		P		P		P		P		¼				½			B	F

Qualification

Means of qualification	Date	Venue	Vacancies	Qualified
Host Country	—	—	1	Brazil
2015 World Cup	22 August – 6 September 2015	Japan	2	China
2015 World Cup	22 August – 6 September 2015	Japan	2	Serbia
European Qualifier	4–9 January 2016	Ankara	1	Russia
South American Qualifier	6–10 January 2016	Bariloche	1	Argentina
North American Qualifier	7–9 January 2016	Lincoln	1	United States
African Qualifier	12–16 February 2016	Yaoundé	1	Cameroon
Asian Qualifier	14–22 May 2016	Tokyo	1	South Korea
1st World Qualifier			3	Italy
				Netherlands
				Japan
2nd World Qualifier	20–22 May 2016	San Juan	1	Puerto Rico
Total			12

Pools composition

Teams were seeded following the Serpentine system according to their FIVB World Ranking as of October 2015.^[3] 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.^[4]

Pool A	Pool B
Brazil (Hosts)	United States (1)
Russia (4)	China (2)
Japan (5)	Serbia (6)
South Korea (9)	Italy (8)
Argentina (12)	Netherlands (14)
Cameroon (21)	Puerto Rico (16)

Rosters

Venue

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Ginásio do Maracanãzinho
Capacity: 11,800

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:^[5]

Number of matches won
Match points
Set ratio
Setpoint ratio
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.^[6]

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

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	Pts	SW	SL	SR	SPW	SPL	SPR	Qualification
1	Brazil (H)	5	5	0	15	15	0	MAX	377	272	1.386	Quarter-finals
2	Russia	5	4	1	12	12	4	3.000	393	323	1.217
3	South Korea	5	3	2	9	10	7	1.429	384	372	1.032
4	Japan	5	2	3	6	7	9	0.778	347	364	0.953
5	Argentina	5	1	4	2	3	14	0.214	319	407	0.784
6	Cameroon	5	0	5	1	2	15	0.133	328	410	0.800

Source: FIVB
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(H) Host

6 August 2016 (2016-08-06) 09:30	Japan	1–3	South Korea	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 5,760 Referees: Denny Cespedes (DOM), Patricia Rolf (USA)
	(25–19, 15–25, 17–25, 21–25) Result Statistics

6 August 2016 (2016-08-06) 15:00	Brazil	3–0	Cameroon	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 7,890 Referees: Heike Kraft (GER), Liu Jiang (CHN)
	(25–14, 25–21, 25–13) Result Statistics

6 August 2016 (2016-08-06) 20:30	Russia	3–0	Argentina	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 5,437 Referees: Ibrahim Al-Naama (QAT), Luis Macias (MEX)
	(25–13, 25–10, 25–16) Result Statistics

8 August 2016 (2016-08-08) 11:35	Japan	3–0	Cameroon	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 5,400 Referees: Rogerio Espicalsky (BRA), Hernán Casamiquela (ARG)
	(25–20, 25–15, 25–17) Result Statistics

8 August 2016 (2016-08-08) 20:30	Russia	3–1	South Korea	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 5,398 Referees: Piotr Dudek (POL), Ibrahim Al-Naama (QAT)
	(25–23, 23–25, 25–23, 25–14) Result Statistics

8 August 2016 (2016-08-08) 22:35	Brazil	3–0	Argentina	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 7,651 Referees: Nasr Shaaban (EGY), Fabrizio Pasquali (ITA)
	(25–16, 25–19, 25–11) Result Statistics

10 August 2016 (2016-08-10) 17:05	Russia	3–0	Cameroon	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 6,396 Referees: Ibrahim Al-Naama (QAT), Mohammad Shahmiri (IRI)
	(25–19, 25–22, 25–23) Result Statistics

10 August 2016 (2016-08-10) 20:30	South Korea	3–0	Argentina	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 7,248 Referees: Patricia Rolf (USA), Taoufik Boudaya (TUN)
	(25–18, 25–20, 25–23) Result Statistics

10 August 2016 (2016-08-10) 22:35	Brazil	3–0	Japan	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 8,759 Referees: Susana Rodríguez (ESP), Luís Macias (MEX)
	(25–18, 25–18, 25–22) Result Statistics

12 August 2016 (2016-08-12) 11:35	Argentina	3–2	Cameroon	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 5,345 Referees: Taoufik Boudaya (TUN), Arturo di Giacomo (BEL)
	(19–25, 25–19, 26–28, 25–21, 15–13) Result Statistics

12 August 2016 (2016-08-12) 20:30	Russia	3–0	Japan	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 7,448 Referees: Mohammad Shahmiri (IRI), Heike Kraft (GER)
	(25–14, 30–28, 25–18) Result Statistics

12 August 2016 (2016-08-12) 22:35	Brazil	3–0	South Korea	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 8,790 Referees: Patricia Rolf (USA), Liu Jiang (CHN)
	(25–17, 25–13, 27–25) Result Statistics

14 August 2016 (2016-08-14) 11:35	South Korea	3–0	Cameroon	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 6,893 Referees: Luis Macias (MEX), Rogerio Espicalsky (BRA)
	(25–15, 25–22, 25–20) Result Statistics

14 August 2016 (2016-08-14) 20:30	Japan	3–0	Argentina	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 5,939 Referees: Denny Cespedes (DOM), Fabrizio Pasquali (ITA)
	(25–23, 25–16, 26–24) Result Statistics

14 August 2016 (2016-08-14) 22:35	Brazil	3–0	Russia	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 8,892 Referees: Nasr Shaaban (EGY), Taoufik Boudaya (TUN)
	(25–23, 25–21, 25–21) Result Statistics

Pool B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	Pts	SW	SL	SR	SPW	SPL	SPR	Qualification
1	United States	5	5	0	14	15	5	3.000	470	400	1.175	Quarter-finals
2	Netherlands	5	4	1	11	14	7	2.000	455	425	1.071
3	Serbia	5	3	2	10	12	6	2.000	410	394	1.041
4	China	5	2	3	7	9	9	1.000	398	389	1.023
5	Italy	5	1	4	3	4	12	0.333	351	374	0.939
6	Puerto Rico	5	0	5	0	0	15	0.000	277	379	0.731

Source: FIVB
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers

6 August 2016 (2016-08-06) 11:35	China	2–3	Netherlands	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 6,410 Referees: Susana Rodríguez (ESP), Paulo Turci (BRA)
	(23–25, 25–21, 25–18, 22–25, 13–15) Result Statistics

6 August 2016 (2016-08-06) 17:05	United States	3–0	Puerto Rico	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 6,832 Referees: Taoufik Boudaya (TUN), Kang Joo-hee (KOR)
	(25–17, 25–22, 25–17) Result Statistics

6 August 2016 (2016-08-06) 22:35	Serbia	3–0	Italy	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 4,373 Referees: Piotr Dudek (POL), Arturo Di Giacomo (BEL)
	(27–25, 25–20, 25–23) Result Statistics

8 August 2016 (2016-08-08) 09:30	China	3–0	Italy	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 4,804 Referees: Patricia Rolf (USA), Paulo Turci (BRA)
	(25–21, 25–21, 25–16) Result Statistics

8 August 2016 (2016-08-08) 15:00	United States	3–2	Netherlands	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 5,455 Referees: Mohammad Shahmiri (IRI), Juraj Mokrý (SVK)
	(18–25, 25–18, 21–25, 25–20, 15–8) Result Statistics

8 August 2016 (2016-08-08) 17:05	Serbia	3–0	Puerto Rico	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 5,730 Referees: Kang Joo-hee (KOR), Andrey Zenovich (RUS)
	(29–27, 25–18, 25–20) Result Statistics

10 August 2016 (2016-08-10) 09:30	China	3–0	Puerto Rico	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 4,386 Referees: Heike Kraft (GER), Kang Joo-hee (KOR)
	(25–20, 25–17, 25–18) Result Statistics

10 August 2016 (2016-08-10) 11:35	Italy	0–3	Netherlands	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 5,539 Referees: Juraj Mokrý (SVK), Nasr Shaaban (EGY)
	(21–25, 20–25, 20–25) Result Statistics

10 August 2016 (2016-08-10) 15:00	United States	3–1	Serbia	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 7,134 Referees: Hernán Casamiquela (ARG), Rogerio Espicalsky (BRA)
	(25–17, 21–25, 25–18, 25–19) Result Statistics

12 August 2016 (2016-08-12) 09:30	China	0–3	Serbia	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 3,509 Referees: Kang Joo-hee (KOR), Susana Rodríguez (ESP)
	(19–25, 19–25, 22–25) Result Statistics

12 August 2016 (2016-08-12) 15:00	United States	3–1	Italy	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 7,243 Referees: Rogerio Espicalsky (BRA), Denny Cespedes (DOM)
	(25–22, 25–22, 23–25, 25–20) Result Statistics

12 August 2016 (2016-08-12) 17:05	Netherlands	3–0	Puerto Rico	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 6,742 Referees: Ibrahim Al-Naama (QAT), Hernán Casamiquela (ARG)
	(25–14, 25–22, 25–16) Result Statistics

14 August 2016 (2016-08-14) 09:30	Serbia	2–3	Netherlands	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 6,387 Referees: Susana Rodríguez (ESP), Andrey Zenovich (RUS)
	(22–25, 20–25, 25–22, 25–18, 8–15) Result Statistics

14 August 2016 (2016-08-14) 15:00	Italy	3–0	Puerto Rico	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 7,225 Referees: Kang Joo-hee (KOR), Patricia Rolf (USA)
	(25–14, 25–13, 25–22) Result Statistics

14 August 2016 (2016-08-14) 17:05	United States	3–1	China	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 6,897 Referees: Heike Kraft (GER), Juraj Mokrý (SVK)
	(22–25, 25–17, 25–19, 25–19) Result Statistics

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.

Bracket

Quarter-finals		Semi-finals		Gold medal match

16 August

Brazil	2
		18 August
China	3
		China	3
16 August
		Netherlands	1
South Korea	1
				20 August
Netherlands	3
				China	3
16 August
				Serbia	1
Russia	0
		18 August
Serbia	3
		Serbia	3
16 August
		United States	2	Bronze medal match
Japan	0
				20 August
United States	3
				Netherlands	1

				United States	3

Quarter-finals

16 August 2016 (2016-08-16) 10:00	South Korea	1–3	Netherlands	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 6,351 Referees: Patricia Rolf (USA), Nasr Shaaban (EGY)
	(19–25, 14–25, 25–23, 20–25) Result Statistics

16 August 2016 (2016-08-16) 14:00	Japan	0–3	United States	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 7,226 Referees: Paulo Turci (BRA), Heike Kraft (GER)
	(16–25, 23–25, 22–25) Result Statistics

16 August 2016 (2016-08-16) 18:00	Russia	0–3	Serbia	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 7,121 Referees: Susana Rodríguez (ESP), Hernán Casamiquela (ARG)
	(9–25, 22–25, 21–25) Result Statistics

16 August 2016 (2016-08-16) 22:15	Brazil	2–3	China	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 9,498 Referees: Piotr Dudek (POL), Vladimir Simonović (SRB)
	(25–15, 23–25, 22–25, 25–22, 13–15) Result Statistics

Semi-finals

18 August 2016 (2016-08-18) 13:00	Serbia	3–2	United States	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 5,837 Referees: Andrey Zenovich (RUS), Nasr Shaaban (EGY)
	(20–25, 25–17, 25–21, 16–25, 15–13) Result Statistics

18 August 2016 (2016-08-18) 22:15	China	3–1	Netherlands	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 8,411 Referees: Luis Macias (MEX), Fabrizio Pasquali (ITA)
	(27–25, 23–25, 29–27, 25–23) Result Statistics

Bronze medal match

20 August 2016 (2016-08-20) 13:00	Netherlands	1–3	United States	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 7,897 Referees: Paulo Turci (BRA), Piotr Dudek (POL)
	(23–25, 27–25, 22–25, 19–25) Result Statistics

Gold medal match

20 August 2016 (2016-08-20) 22:15	China	3–1	Serbia	Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 8,773 Referees: Susana Rodríguez (ESP), Patricia Rolf (USA)
	(19–25, 25–17, 25–22, 25–23) Result Statistics

Statistics leaders

Only players whose teams advanced to the semifinals are ranked.

Best scorers

Rank	Name	Points
1	Zhu Ting	179
2	Lonneke Slöetjes	157
3	Tijana Bošković	137
4	Brankica Mihajlović	121
5	Anne Buijs	104
5	Foluke Akinradewo	104

Best spikers

Rank	Name	%Eff
1	Zhu Ting	42.27
2	Brankica Mihajlović	31.60
3	Lonneke Slöetjes	28.57
3	Jordan Larson	28.57
5	Kimberly Hill	28.00

Best blockers

Rank	Name	Avg
1	Milena Rašić	0.83
2	Robin de Kruijf	0.76
3	Foluke Akinradewo	0.56
3	Rachael Adams	0.56
5	Zhu Ting	0.48

Best servers

Rank	Name	Avg
1	Milena Rašić	0.57
2	Tijana Bošković	0.33
3	Anne Buijs	0.30
4	Hui Ruoqi	0.29
5	Jordan Larson	0.26

Best diggers

Rank	Name	Avg
1	Debby Stam	2.30
2	Lin Li	1.90
3	Silvija Popović	1.80
4	Kayla Banwarth	1.75
5	Jordan Larson	1.56

Best setters

Rank	Name	Avg
1	Alisha Glass	10.47
2	Laura Dijkema	10.36
3	Maja Ognjenović	9.03
4	Ding Xia	5.52
5	Wei Qiuyue	4.74

Best receivers

Rank	Name	%Succ
1	Silvija Popović	45.32
2	Jordan Larson	44.05
3	Kayla Banwarth	41.72
4	Zhu Ting	39.16
5	Lin Li	35.06

Source: FIVB.org

Final standing

Rank^[7]	Team
	China
	Serbia
	United States
4	Netherlands
5	Brazil
	Japan
	South Korea
	Russia
9	Argentina
9	Italy
11	Cameroon
11	Puerto Rico

2016 Women's Olympic champions
China 3rd title

12–woman roster

Ding Xia, Gong Xiangyu, Hui Ruoqi (c), Lin Li (L), Liu Xiaotong, Wei Qiuyue, Xu Yunli, Yan Ni, Yang Fangxu, Yuan Xinyue, Zhang Changning, Zhu Ting

Head coach

Lang Ping

Medalists

Gold	Silver	Bronze
China (CHN) Wei Qiuyue Xu Yunli Hui Ruoqi (c) Zhang Changning Yang Fangxu Lin Li (L) Yan Ni Zhu Ting Ding Xia Gong Xiangyu Liu Xiaotong Yuan Xinyue Head coach: Lang Ping	Serbia (SRB) Jelena Nikolić Maja Ognjenović (c) Stefana Veljković Jovana Brakočević Bojana Živković Milena Rašić Brankica Mihajlović Bianka Buša Jovana Stevanović Tijana Bošković Tijana Malešević Silvija Popović (L) Head coach: Zoran Terzić	United States (USA) Courtney Thompson Jordan Larson-Burbach Foluke Akinradewo Christa Harmotto-Dietzen (c) Alisha Glass Carli Lloyd Karsta Lowe Kayla Banwarth (L) Kelly Murphy Kelsey Robinson Kimberly Hill Rachael Adams Head coach: Karch Kiraly

Awards

Most valuable player
Zhu Ting ^[8]
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

References

↑ "China crowned champions in Rio de Janeiro". rio2016.fivb.com. 20 August 2016.
↑ "USA raise high wall to stop Netherlands for bronze medal". rio2016.fivb.com. 20 August 2016.
↑ "FIVB Senior World Ranking – Women (as of October 2015)". FIVB . Retrieved 15 July 2016.
↑ "Rio 2016 women's volleyball pools unveiled". fivb.com. 23 May 2016.
↑ "Pools Ranking Criteria". FIVB . Retrieved 29 June 2016.
↑ Referees
↑ Rio 2016 volleyball women Results, olympics.com
↑ "FIVB:#Rio2016 women's #Volleyball Dream Team". fivb.com. 20 August 2016. Retrieved 20 August 2016.

External links

Official website

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] "China crowned champions in Rio de Janeiro". rio2016.fivb.com. 20 August 2016.

[2] "USA raise high wall to stop Netherlands for bronze medal". rio2016.fivb.com. 20 August 2016.

[3] "FIVB Senior World Ranking – Women (as of October 2015)". FIVB . Retrieved 15 July 2016.

[4] "Rio 2016 women's volleyball pools unveiled". fivb.com. 23 May 2016.

[5] "Pools Ranking Criteria". FIVB . Retrieved 29 June 2016.

[6] Referees

[7] Rio 2016 volleyball women Results, olympics.com

[8] "FIVB:#Rio2016 women's #Volleyball Dream Team". fivb.com. 20 August 2016. Retrieved 20 August 2016.

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