Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter a maximum of 36 athletes, 18 per each gender and 1 per each event.

The remaining 540 places were divided evenly among the individual events and were decided among a single continental qualification event for each continent with the exception of the Americas in which they hosted three.

The amount of quotas available to each continent for each event was decided on the results from the 2011 World Youth Championships and 2013 World Youth Championships.

[1][2] To be eligible to participate at the Youth Olympics athletes must have been born between 1 January 1997 and 31 December 1998.

[1] The schedule was released by the Nanjing Youth Olympic Games Organizing Committee.