| Event: | Women's beach volleyball |
| Games: | 2016 Summer |
| Venue: | Copacabana Stadium |
| Dates: | 6–17 August 2016 |
| Competitors: | 48 |
| Teams: | 24 |
| Nations: | 17 |
| Gold: | Laura Ludwig Kira Walkenhorst |
| Goldnoc: | GER |
| Silver: | Ágatha Bednarczuk Bárbara Seixas |
| Silvernoc: | BRA |
| Bronze: | April Ross Kerri Walsh Jennings |
| Bronzenoc: | USA |
| Prev: | 2012 |
| Next: | 2020 |
The women's beach volleyball tournament at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, took place at the Copacabana Stadium. The competition was held from 6 to 17 August 2016. Twenty four teams with 48 athletes around the world competed for the gold medal.
The medals for the tournament were presented by Anita DeFrantz, IOC Member, Olympian one Bronze Medal, United States of America, and the gifts were presented by Dr. Ary Graça Filho, FIVB President.
See main article: Beach volleyball at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Women's qualification.
Twenty-four teams were drawn in six pools of four teams. The top six teams from the FIVB beach volleyball Olympic ranking as of 12 June 2016[1] were seeded at the first row of each pools from pool A to F. The seventh to ninth from the ranking were drawn first in pool F, E, or D. Then, the tenth to twelfth were drawn in pool C, B, or A. The next row was filled by the teams ranked thirteenth to seventeenth. These teams were drawn in pool A to E. The remaining spot of third row was filled by one of the five confederation continental cup champions. Then, the four remaining confederation continental cup champions were drawn in pool F to C. Finally, the winners and runners-up from the World Continental Cup were drawn in the last two spots. Teams from the same national Olympic committee could not be drawn in the same pool, except in the last drawing.[2]
On 3 August 2016, Viktoria Orsi Toth from Italy was excluded from the women's tournament due to positive doping test for clostebol before the competition. Her place was replaced by Laura Giombini.[3]
| Group | width=300 | Team | width=140 | NOC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| align=center rowspan=6 | Seeding | Talita Antunes / Larissa França | ||
| Ágatha Bednarczuk / Bárbara Seixas | ||||
| April Ross / Kerri Walsh Jennings | ||||
| Laura Ludwig / Kira Walkenhorst | ||||
| Heather Bansley / Sarah Pavan | ||||
| Madelein Meppelink / Marleen van Iersel | ||||
| align=center rowspan=3 | Draw 1 | Louise Bawden / Taliqua Clancy | ||
| Karla Borger / Britta Büthe | ||||
| Marta Menegatti / Laura Giombini | ||||
| align=center rowspan=3 | Draw 2 | Elsa Baquerizo / Liliana Fernández | ||
| Monika Brzostek / Kinga Kołosińska | ||||
| Isabelle Forrer / Anouk Vergé-Dépré | ||||
| align=center rowspan=5 | Draw 3 | Jamie Broder / Kristina Valjas | ||
| Joana Heidrich / Nadine Zumkehr | ||||
| Lauren Fendrick / Brooke Sweat | ||||
| Ana Gallay / Georgina Klug | ||||
| Wang Fan / Yue Yuan | ||||
| align=center rowspan=5 | Mariafe Artacho / Nicole Laird | |||
| Doaa Elghobashy / Nada Meawad | ||||
| Jantine van der Vlist / Sophie van Gestel | ||||
| Norisbeth Agudo / Olaya Pérez Pazo | ||||
| Nathalia Alfaro / Karen Cope | ||||
| align=center rowspan=2 | Draw 6 | Barbora Hermannová / Markéta Sluková | ||
| Ekaterina Birlova / Evgenia Ukolova |
 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | |
|---|---|
| Copacabana Stadium | |
| Capacity: 12,000 | |
The preliminary round was a competition between the twenty four teams divided into six groups of four teams. This round, the teams competed in a single round-robin format. The two highest ranked teams in each group and the two best third ranked teams advanced automatically to the knockout stage. The other four third ranked teams faced the lucky loser playoffs to take the last two spots. The fourth placed teams in each pool were ranked nineteenth in this competition. The losers from the lucky loser playoffs were tied seventeenth. The knockout stage followed the single-elimination format. The losers in the round of sixteen were ranked ninth. The four quarter-final losers finished fifth. The winners of the semi-finals competed for gold medals and the losers played for bronze medals.
The following referees were selected for the tournament.[4]
Osvaldo Sumavil Mário Ferro Elizir Martins de Oliveira
Lucie Guillemette
Wang Lijun
Juan Carlos Saavedra
Davide Crescentini
Mariko Satomi
Roman Pristovakin
José Maria Padron
Kritsada Panaseri
Daniel Apol--------
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The table below shows the ranking of third-placed teams in the preliminary round. The top two teams will advance to next round automatically. The other teams will compete for the two remaining spots. The third-ranked team will play with the sixth-ranked team, and the fourth-ranked team will play with the fifth-ranked team.
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The round of sixteen pair up were determined by drawing of lots. The six first ranked teams in preliminary pools were separated automatically. Then, the lucky loser playoffs winners were drawn. The two best third ranked were drawn next. And, the last drawing belonged to the second ranked teams. The teams in the same pool from preliminary round could not meet in round of 16.
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| data-sort-type="number" | Rank | Team | Seed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | |||
| 2 | |||
| 3 | |||
| 4 | 1 | ||
| 5 | 5 | ||
| 7 | |||
| 17 | |||
| 24 | |||
| 9 | 6 | ||
| 7 | |||
| 9 | |||
| 10 | |||
| 11 | |||
| 12 | |||
| 15 | |||
| 16 | |||
| 17 | 19 | ||
| 23 | |||
| 19 | 13 | ||
| 14 | |||
| 18 | |||
| 20 | |||
| 21 | |||
| 22 |