Water polo at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Women's qualification
The 2016 Women's Water Polo Olympic Qualification Tournament was held at the Groenhovenbad in Gouda, Netherlands, from 21 to 28 March 2016. The top four teams advanced to the Olympics. The mascot of the event was an orange lion in blue clothes called Swimba.
Participants
There were 12 places originally allocated to continental associations in the tournament not already directly qualified to the Olympics – 7 from Europe, 2 from the Americas, 1 from Asia, 1 from Africa, and 1 from Oceania.| Continent | How qualified |
| Europe | |
| Host country | |
| 2016 European Championship bronze medalists | |
| 2016 European Championship 4th place | |
| 2016 European Championship 5th place | |
| 2016 European Championship 6th place | |
| 2016 European Championship 7th place | |
| 2016 European Championship 8th place | |
| Americas | |
| 2015 Pan American Games gold medalists | |
| 2015 Pan American Games silver medalists | |
| Asia | |
| 2015 Asian Championship silver medalists | |
| Africa | |
| African Continental Selection | |
| Oceania | |
Squads
Draw
The draw took place on 23 January 2016 in Belgrade, after the final of the 2016 European Championship.Preliminary round
All times are local .Group A
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Group B
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Knockout stage
Times are local for matches on 26 March, and for matches on 27 and 28 March 2016.Bracket
;5th place bracketQuarterfinals
The winners qualify for the 2016 Olympics.----
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5–8th place semifinals
----Semifinals
----7th place match
5th place match
3rd place match
Final
Final ranking
| Rank | Team |
| 4 | |
| 5 | |
| 6 | |
| 7 | |
| 8 | |
| 9 | |
| 10 | |
| 11 | |
| 12 |