[1] Ki had narrowly defeated Mexico's Aída Román in a one-arrow shoot-off in the final, earning her a second Olympic gold medal following victory in the women's team event four days earlier.

Román and her Mexican teammate Mariana Avitia, who had defeated Khatuna Lorig of the United States in the bronze medal match, became Mexico's first ever Olympic medal-winners in archery.

[2] An official test event, the Aquece Rio International Archery Challenge, was held over eight days at the Sambadrome Marquês de Sapucaí in September 2015.

The purpose of the event was to evaluate the venue's preparations and give archers and coaches the chance to familiarise themselves with the location and schedule ahead of the Games the following year.

[3] South Korea's Choi Mi-sun emerged victorious in the women's individual event by defeating Tan Ya-ting of Chinese Taipei in the final, with Mackenzie Brown of the United States third and Japan's Kaori Kawanaka finishing in fourth.

Eight nations - China, Colombia, Georgia, India, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, and Russia - secured the maximum berth of archers as the highest-placed teams.

[12][13] The Chinese Taipei team featured one change from its London 2012 trio, Lin Shih-chia joining Tan Ya-ting and Le Chien-ying in what journalist John Stanley described as a "formidable" line-up.

Following the publication of the McLaren Report concerning allegations of state-sponsored doping of Russian athletes, the trio were approved and cleared to compete by the World Archery Federation in July 2016 having had no history of using performance-enhancing drugs.

[17] Brazil likewise featured three Olympic debutantes in its lineup, the performances Ane Marcelle dos Santos, Sarah Nikitin, and Marina Canetta in the second and third stages of the 2016 Archery World Cup meriting their selection for the host nation.

[21] Zahra Nemati, the reigning Paralympic champion in the W1/W2 wheelchair discipline, was selected by Iran for her Olympic debut following her silver medal at the 2018 Asian Archery Championships.

[24] With South Korea's long-established record of success in the women's individual event, the trio of Ki Bo-bae, Chang Hye-jin, and Choi Mi-sun entered as favourites to challenge for the gold medal.

Ki and Choi in particular were tipped for victory by several observers, including commentator George Tekmitchov, compound archer Sara López, and World Archery journalist Andrea Vasquez.

Former Olympians Juan René Serrano and Natalia Valeeva picked Aída Román and Deepika Kumari as their favourites, whereas broadcaster Carl Arky selected Chinese Taipei's Tan Ya-ting as his choice for gold medal.

[25] Zorowitz also listed Tan and her teammate Lei Chien-ying as serious medal challengers,[26] while Vinica Weiss of Sports Illustrated called Ksenia Perova as one of her athletes to watch.

"[30] Citing a busy schedule, the Indian archers elected to skip the opening ceremony, which took place later in the evening of 5 August, to fully concentrate on the ranking round.

The Indo-Asian News Service however summarised the Olympic debut of Laxmirani Majhi, the third member of the Indian team, as "disappointing", Mahji ending on 614 points in 43rd place.

[32] For the three Italian archers, Michele Cassano of OA Sport was optimistic in his analysis of the potential match-ups to come following Lucilla Boari's seventh-placed finish with 651 points, but was more ambivalent about thirteenth-seed Guendalina Sartori, whose path to the latter stages of the competition included Kumari and Georgia's Kristine Esebua.

He however likened Claudia Mandia's path to the circles of hell in Dante's Inferno, the Italian scoring 612 points to finish forty-sixth and entering the elimination rounds in the same bracket as Mackenzie Brown, Finland's Taru Kuoppa, and reigning Olympic champion Ki.

Monday saw Ki in action, the defending champion winning her first two matches without dropping a set to advance to the last sixteen against Myanmar's San Yu Htwe.

Hwte, who entered the competition through Myanmar's invitational place and was seeded fifty-first after the ranking round, pulled off two surprise results in a row by defeating both fourteenth-seed Taru Kuoppa and nineteenth-seed Mackenzie Brown, conceding just one set in each match.

[34] Ki's opponent in the final at the 2012 Olympics, Aída Román, was also in action but failed replicate her silver medal-winning run from 2012, losing to Moldova's Alexandra Mîrca in the 1/32 elimination round.

[34][35] Seventh-seed Lucilla Boari was another archer to suffer a surprise opening-round defeat on the Monday, losing to the Australian fifty-eighth seed Alice Ingley in the day's afternoon session.

"[38] Iran's Zahra Nemati, the sole Paralympian in the competition, had the support of the crowd in her opening bout against Russia's Inna Stepanova, but despite a strong start ultimately lost by six set points to two.

[40] The quarter-finals also saw a major upset with the elimination of world number one Choi to the eighth seed Alejandra Valencia of Mexico, the Mexican winning in straight sets.