Host country Brazil Dates 6–19 August 2016 Venue(s) Olympic Hockey Centre | City Rio de Janeiro Teams 12 | |
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Champions Great Britain (1st title) | ||
The women's field hockey tournament at the 2016 Summer Olympics was the tenth edition of the field hockey event for women at the Summer Olympics. It took place over a fourteen-day period beginning on 6 August, and culminating with the medal finals on 19 August. All games were played at the Olympic Hockey Centre in Deodoro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Contents
Great Britain won the gold medal for the first time after defeating defending champions the Netherlands 2–0 on a penalty shoot-out after a 3–3 draw. Germany won the bronze medal by defeating New Zealand 2–1.
Competition schedule
The match schedule of the women's tournament was unveiled on 27 April 2016.
Competition format
The twelve teams in the tournament were divided into two groups of six, with each team initially playing round-robin games within their group. Following the completion of the round-robin stage, the top four teams from each group advance to the quarter-finals. The two semi-final winners meet for the gold medal match, while the semi-final losers play in the bronze medal match.
Qualification
Each of the continental champions from five confederations receive an automatic berth. The host nation didn't qualify as they didn't place higher than fortieth in the FIH World Rankings by the end of 2014 nor finished no worse than seventh at the 2015 Pan American Games (they didn't even qualify for that tournament). This restriction was decided between the International Hockey Federation (FIH) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) due to the standard of field hockey in Brazil. In addition to the seven highest placed teams at the Semifinals of the 2014–15 FIH Hockey World League not already qualified, the following twelve teams, shown with final pre-tournament rankings, will compete in this tournament.
^1 – Competed as England ^2 – South Africa won the continental qualifier however the team will not participate in the 2016 Olympics. South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) and South African Hockey Association (SAHA) made an agreement on the Rio 2016 Olympics qualification criteria that the Continental Qualification route will not be considered. As a result, Spain, as the highest-ranked team from the 2014-15 Hockey World League Semifinals not already qualified, will participate instead.Group stage
All times are local (UTC−3).
Final ranking
As per statistical convention in field hockey, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.