A Scottish man based in Canada, Mr. W. Hastie Cochrane, was unsuccessful in his bid to get rugby sevens into the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics: the IOC stated that the limit of max two exhibition sports cannot be exceeded, and American football and lacrosse had already been planned.

In March 2009, two senior delegates from the IOC attended the 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens in Dubai at the invitation of the IRB.

As well as rugby sevens, baseball and softball (which were dropped from the Olympic programme in 2005), karate, squash, golf and roller sports (inline speed skating) were all seeking to be included in the 2016 Games and leaders of the seven sports made formal presentations to the IOC executive board in June 2009.

Separate competitions for men and women will be held, using a similar format to the existing IRB Sevens World Series.

At the end of pool play, the eight best teams—the top two from each group plus the two best third-place finishers—qualify for the quarterfinals, while the other four teams move to the semi-finals of a consolation bracket.

The seven-a-side version, completed over two or three days, involving squads of no more than 12 players and consisting of multiple 14 minute matches in one stadium was seen as particularly suitable format for multi-sport events.

The sport was retained thereafter for 2024 in Paris and 2028 in Los Angeles, and is expected to be included in 2032 in Australia, a major rugby sevens nation.

The Organising Committee considered Estádio Olímpico João Havelange, which would have had to have been shared with the athletics competitions.

[10] It was later announced that the rugby competition will take place in a temporary arena at Deodoro Stadium, shared with the modern pentathlon.

In April 2016 concerns were raised by the World Rugby head of competitions and performance, Mark Egan, about progress of construction at the temporary 15,000-seater stadium.

The ball looked to be grassed early and then bobble over the line without Australian player Emma Tonegato being in control.

Samisoni Viriviri muscled his way past two players before offloading to Jerry Tuwai to score under the posts.