The Olympic Games men’s and women’s volleyball tournament will be conducted over the full 16-day program of Rio 2016 from Saturday, August 6 to Sunday, August 21, 2016. The women’s competition runs from August 6-20 and the men from August 7-21 with the genders alternating days.
There will be 12 men’s teams and 12 women's teams, with 12 players each.
The competitions for men and women will each consist of four (4) phases and a total of 38 matches. The competitions will begin with the preliminary round, for which the 12 teams will be divided into two pools (A and B) of six (6) teams each. Every team will play the five (5) other teams in its pool.
The first four (4) teams in each pool will advance to the quarterfinals, from which point the competitions will follow a single-elimination format.
The four (4) winning teams in the quarterfinals will qualify for the semifinals. The winners of the two (2) semifinals will play for the gold and silver medals, and the losers of the two (2) semifinals will play for the bronze medal. The losers of the quarterfinals will be tied for fifth (5th) place in the competition; the teams ranked fifth (5th) in each pool will be tied for ninth (9th) place in the competition; and the teams ranked sixth (6th) in each pool will be tied for 11th place in the competition.