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: 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. Preliminary round. All times are Brasília Time (). Knockout stage. All times are Brasília Time (). 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. <onlyinclude></onlyinclude> Statistics leaders. Best scorers Best spikers Best blockers Best servers Best diggers Best setters Best receivers