The qualification for the 2016 Men's Olympic Handball Tournament was held from January 2015 to April 2016. Twelve teams qualified, the hosts, the world champion, four continental event winners and six teams from the World Olympic qualification tournaments respectively.
The Olympic Qualification Tournaments were held on 8–10 April 2016. Only twelve teams that have not yet qualified through the five events mentioned above could play in the tournament:
The top six teams from the World championship that did not already qualify through their continental championships were eligible to participate in the tournament.
The best ranked teams of each continent in the World championship represented the continent in order to determine the continental ranking. The first ranked continent received two more places for the tournament. The second, third and fourth ranked continent received one place each. The last place belongs to a team from Oceania, if one was ranked between 8th–12th at the World Championship. As no team from Oceania met this condition, the second ranked continent received an extra place instead. The teams that already earned their places through their World championship ranking will not be considered for receiving places through the continental criterion.
The twelve teams were allocated in three pools of four teams according to the table below. The top two teams from each pool qualified for the 2016 Olympic Games.[3][4]