[6] England, Wales and Scotland; three of the four nations that make up the United Kingdom that Great Britain represents at the Olympics, all compete separately within international sevens competition.

[7] The individual British rugby unions selected England to be the lead nation due to their professional sevens set-up.

[9] England secured Great Britain's qualification to the 2016 Summer Olympics by finishing fourth in the 2015 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series after defeating the United States in the third place playoff in Amsterdam.

[11] In May 2015, Joe Lydon was appointed as the performance manager responsible for recruiting the head coach for the Great Britain women's rugby sevens team.

[15] Northern Irish players, according to the IOC's rules as British passport holders, would have been eligible to represent Great Britain.