The sole woman, Margret Rumat Hassan, was given a spot eight days prior to the start of the Games that had been allotted previously to Mangar Makur Chuot.

The flagbearer for both the opening and closing ceremony was Guor Marial, a marathon runner who, then unable to represent South Sudan, had competed as an Independent Olympic Athlete in 2012.

[2] South Sudan became the 206th IOC member in August 2015, with the affiliations of track and field, basketball, association football, handball, judo, table tennis, and taekwondo.

[5] No South Sudanese athletes met the Olympic qualifying standards, but the nation was allotted three universality places to compete in track and field events.

Eight days prior to the start of the Games, however, the South Sudan National Olympic Committee informed Chuot, who had already been accredited, by email that he had been removed from the team.

The NOC chose Margret Hassan, a competitor in the 200 m event, to take his spot, despite another athlete, national record holder Viola Lado, having posted a better time in the lead up to the Olympics.

This heat contained eventual gold medal-winner Elaine Thompson of Jamaica, although it was won by the Ivory Coast's Marie-Josée Ta Lou.

[11] He was selected to represent South Sudan in the men's 1500 m and was placed in heat one, which included Matthew Centrowitz Jr. of the United States, the eventual gold medalist.