[2][3] It was the nation's largest delegation sent to the Olympics since 1988, eclipsing the record of 15 athletes who attended the London games four years earlier.

The Ugandan roster featured six returning Olympians, although only four of them competed in London in 2012: defending marathon champion Stephen Kiprotich, swimmer Jamila Lunkuse, and the steeplechase tandem of Jacob Araptany and Benjamin Kiplagat, who headed to his third games as the most experienced member.

[4] Other notable athletes on the Ugandan team were Solomon Mutai who won a bronze medal in the men's marathon at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing; 15-year-old distance runner Jacob Kiplimo (men's 5000 metres); and US-based freestyle swimmer Joshua Tibatemwa, who was the nation's flag bearer in the opening ceremony.

[6] The nation's most celebrated athlete, Kiprotich, failed to retain his marathon title, slipping to a fourteenth-place finish in Rio de Janeiro.

2008 Olympians Ronald Serugo and Kennedy Katende, who previously competed for Sweden, had claimed Olympic spots as a result of their box-off triumphs at the 2016 African Qualification Tournament in Yaoundé, Cameroon.