As a result of England finishing fourth in the 2014–15 Sevens World Series, Great Britain were awarded a spot in the Olympic games, despite the other nations failing to qualify in the top 4.

This is because Great Britain compete as one union in the Olympics and as several in international rugby (England, Wales, Scotland and a combined union from Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland), which meant should one of either the England, Wales or Scotland teams qualify, then Great Britain would be awarded a spot in the Olympic Games.

On 11 April 2016, World Rugby announced a panel of twelve match officials for the women's sevens.

The 12 teams were seeded based on their points they have accumulated over the past two seasons on the Women's Sevens Series circuit.

The four teams that qualified directly from the 2014–15 Women's Sevens World Series were guaranteed a top four seeding, with their positioning determined by their combined score over the two seasons.