[2] Papua New Guinea received an invitation from the Tripartite Commission to send the men's lightweight boxer John Ume to the Olympics.

[3] Papua New Guinean sailors qualified one boat in each of the following classes through the class-associated World Championships, and the continental regattas, marking the country's recurrence to the sport for the first time in 28 years.

[3][4] M = Medal race; EL = Eliminated – did not advance into the medal race Papua New Guinea received a universality invitation from FINA to send two top-ranked swimmers (one per gender) in their respective individual events to the Olympics, based on the FINA Points System of June 28, 2021.

[5][3] Papua New Guinea entered two weightlifters (one per gender) into the Olympic competition.

Rio 2016 Olympian Morea Baru (men's 61 kg), with the veteran Dika Toua (women's 49 kg) becoming the first female from her nation to compete in five Olympics, topped the list of weightlifters from Oceania in their respective weight categories based on the IWF Absolute Continental Rankings.