[citation needed] The Portuguese roster featured 31 returning Olympians, including three past medalists: triple jumper and Beijing 2008 champion Nelson Évora and sprint canoeing duo Fernando Pimenta and Emanuel Silva, who brought home the nation's only medal, a silver, at London 2012.

Windsurfer and multiple-time European champion João Rodrigues, who was selected as the nation's flag bearer in the opening ceremony, set a historic milestone as the first Portuguese athlete to participate in his seventh and final Olympics.

[1][5] Pistol shooter João Costa, the oldest of the team (aged 52), and Laser sailor Gustavo Lima joined the list of the nation's athletes who attended their fifth Games.

[citation needed] Portugal left Rio de Janeiro with only a bronze medal won by Monteiro in the women's 57 kg, saving its pride from the humiliation of returning empty-handed for the first time since Barcelona 1992.

[11] Eight days later, the Portuguese federation announced that Yazaldes Nascimento would be unable to participate in the men's 100 metres due to injury, which had already left him out of the delegation for the 2016 European Athletics Championships.

London 2012 Olympians Pedro Martins and Telma Santos picked up one of the spare athlete berths each from host nation Brazil and from the Tripartite Commission as the next highest-ranked eligible players in their respective singles events based on the BWF World Rankings as of 5 May 2016.

[14] Portugal has qualified one boat in the men's slalom C-1 for the Games, as the International Canoe Federation accepted the nation's request to claim a spare berth freed by Great Britain.

[18] On 4 July 2016, the Portuguese Cycling Federation announced the selection of former Olympians André Cardoso, Rui Costa and Nelson Oliveira, and of 2016 national road race champion José Mendes, who would take part in his first Olympics.

[23] Portugal qualified a team of 18 players for the Olympic men's football tournament by reaching the semifinals at the 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship in the Czech Republic.

[33][34] On 22 July, however, the Portuguese federation announced that Simões would fail its debut Olympic participation in Rio de Janeiro due to a foot injury in a preparation event.

Two-time Olympians Tiago Apolónia and Marcos Freitas, along with Chinese-born Yu Fu, secured Olympic spots each in the men's and women's singles, respectively, by winning their group final matches at the European Qualification Tournament in Halmstad, Sweden.

[47] Meanwhile, Shao Jieni was automatically selected among the top 22 eligible players to join Yu in the women's singles based on the ITTF Olympic Rankings.

European Games champion Rui Bragança qualified automatically for the men's flyweight category (58 kg) by finishing in the top 6 WTF Olympic rankings.