This article details the canoeing at the 2016 Summer Olympics qualifying phase. Similar to 2012 format, a qualification system has been set up for both slalom and sprint canoeing at these games. The quotas have already been set for each event by the International Canoe Federation in August 2014.

This section tabulates the heads of qualification in a form suitable to be filled in as events progress. The full qualification rules[1] for canoeing (slalom) published by ICF contain intricate conditions too lengthy for inclusion in Wikipedia.

For the slalom events, the men competed in C-1, C-2, and K-1. Women competed in K-1 only. Qualifications were allocated to NOCs, not to specific competitors. NOCs were limited to one boat per event. Qualification spots were earned as follows:

• World Championships: The top placed boats (considering only one boat per NOC) earned their NOCs a qualification. 15 qualification spots were available in the K-1 events, 10 in the C-1, and 8 boats (16 athletes) in the C-2.
• Continental Qualification Events: Only NOCs that did not earn qualification in a given event through the World Championships were eligible. For the K-1 and C-1 events, 1 qualification spot was available for each continent. For the C-2 event, only 3 total qualification spots were available; these were assigned to continents based on World Championship results: the best ranked non-qualifying NOCs from three different continents at the World Championships earned their continent one boat qualification place.
• Host country: Brazil, as the host country, was guaranteed one entry in each event if not already qualified.
• Tripartite Commission: Canoeing (both slalom and sprint) had a total of 2 qualification spots that would be awarded through Tripartite Commission invitations.
• Reallocation: Unused quota spots were reallocated. In practice, this was used where one of an NOC's C-2 competitors also competed in the C-1 event, freeing up the athlete quota spot that NOC had earned in the C-1.

Timeline

More information Event, Date ...

Event	Date	Venue
2015 Pan American Games	July 18–19, 2015	Toronto, Canada
2015 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships	September 16–20, 2015	Lee Valley, Great Britain
2015 African Canoeing Championships[2]	November 6–8, 2015	Sagana, Kenya
2016 Oceania Canoeing Championships	February 19–21, 2016	Penrith, Australia
2016 Asian Canoe Slalom Championships	April 23–24, 2016	Toyama, Japan
2016 European Canoe Slalom Championships	May 13–15, 2016	Liptovský Mikuláš, Slovakia

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Qualification table

More information Event, Men's K-1 ...

Event	Men's K-1	Men's C-1	Men's C-2	Women's K-1
Host nation	Brazil	Brazil	Brazil	—
2015 World Championships	Czech Republic  Slovenia  Germany  Italy  United States  Poland  France  Azerbaijan  Russia  Great Britain  Japan  Austria  Slovakia  New Zealand  Australia  Cook Islands*	Slovakia  Slovenia  Great Britain  Germany  France  Poland  Japan  Russia  Czech Republic  United States	Great Britain  Poland  Germany  Slovenia  France  Slovakia  Russia  Czech Republic	Spain  Australia  Germany  Czech Republic  Great Britain  Slovakia  New Zealand  China  Brazil  Austria  France  Russia  Slovenia  Poland  Japan  Cook Islands*
2015 Pan American Games	Canada	Canada	United States	Canada**  United States
2015 African Championships	Nigeria	Senegal	—	Morocco
2016 Oceania Championships	—	Australia	—	—
2016 Asian Championships	China	China	Japan	Kazakhstan
2016 European Championships	Netherlands  Sweden	Spain	Switzerland	Ukraine
Tripartite Invitation	—	Lebanon	—	—
Reallocation	—	Argentina  Portugal	—	Italy
Total	21	19	12	21

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Italic: National federation has qualified a boat but the athlete that did this was already counted in another boat
* No continental qualifying race held as less than three nations are eligible.
** National federation is limited to two athlete quota places at a continental qualifying event.

This section tabulates the heads of qualification in a form suitable to be filled in as events progress. The full qualification rules[3] for canoeing (sprint) published by ICF contain intricate conditions too lengthy for inclusion in Wikipedia.

NOCs are limited to one boat per event, and in kayaking to 8 men and 6 women positions. Qualification enables an NOC to participate, not necessarily in the person of the paddler who gained the place. Quotas given are for boats.^[3] Qualification spots were earned as follows:

• World Championships: The top placed boats (considering only one boat per NOC) earned their NOCs a qualification. 8 boat qualification spots were available in the K-1 events (1 of which was reserved for the host country in the men's 1000 metre and women's 500 metre events), 6 in the K-2 events, 10 in the K-4 events, 7 in the C-1 events (1 of which was reserved for the host country in the 1000 metre event), and 6 in the C-2 event.
• Continental Qualification Events: Only NOCs that did not earn qualification in a given event through the World Championships were eligible. For the K-1, C-1, and C-2 events, 1 boat qualification spot was available for each continent (except that Europe received 2 spots). For the K-2 events, Europe was guaranteed a boat qualification spot but only 3 total qualification spots were available for the remaining 4 continents; these were assigned to continents based on World Championship results: the best ranked non-qualifying NOCs from three different continents at the World Championships earned their continent one boat qualification place.
• Host country: Brazil, as the host country, was guaranteed entries in certain events as listed in the World Championship section.
• Tripartite Commission: Canoeing (both slalom and sprint) had a total of 2 qualification spots that would be awarded through Tripartite Commission invitations.
• Reallocation: Unused quota spots were reallocated. In practice, this was used where some of an NOC's competitors in a larger boat category also competed in a smaller category, freeing up the athlete quota spot that NOC had earned in the smaller category.

Timeline

More information Event, Date ...

Event	Date	Venue
2015 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships	August 19–23, 2015	Milan, Italy
2015 Asian Canoe Sprint Championships	November 4–7, 2015	Palembang, Indonesia
2016 Oceania Canoeing Championships	February 12–14, 2016	Adelaide, Australia
2016 African Sprint Qualifier	March 29 – April 2, 2016	Pretoria, South Africa
2016 European Sprint Qualifier	May 18–19, 2016	Duisburg, Germany
2016 Pan American Sprint Qualifier	May 19–20, 2016	Gainesville, United States

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Qualification table

More information Event, 2015 World Championships ...

Event	2015 World Championships	Continental qualification					Total
Men Kayak		Europe	Americas	Asia	Africa	Oceania
K-1 200 m	Canada  France  Sweden  Lithuania  Russia  Ecuador  Poland  Czech Republic  Argentina  Serbia	Spain  Italy  Latvia	Brazil  Cuba	Kazakhstan	South Africa  Egypt	Australia	14
K-1 1000 m	Denmark  Czech Republic  Portugal  Germany  Belarus  Australia  Bulgaria  Slovakia  Serbia  Belgium^	Hungary  Russia  Spain	Canada	Uzbekistan	Tunisia	New Zealand	14
K-2 200 m	Hungary  Russia∞  Serbia  France  Great Britain  Germany  Lithuania^  Canada	Spain	Brazil	South Korea	—	Australia	10
K-2 1000 m	Germany  Australia  Serbia  Slovakia  BelarusΔ  France  Lithuania^[4]	Hungary	Cuba	Kazakhstan	—	—	10
K-4 1000 m	Argentina  BelarusΔ  Czech Republic  Australia  Hungary  Kazakhstan  Portugal  Romania  Russiaº  Slovakia  Spain	—	—	—	—	—	11
Event	2015 World Championships	Continental qualification					Total
Men Canoe		Europe	Americas	Asia	Africa	Oceania
C-1 200 m	Belarus  China  Brazil  Russia∞  Lithuania  Azerbaijan  Hungary  Portugal  Ukraine^	Spain  Georgia	Mexico	Kazakhstan  Iran	Tunisia	Cook Islands	13
C-1 1000 m	Germany  Czech Republic  Moldova  Ukraine  Russia  Poland  Hungary  France^	Latvia  Italy  Bulgaria	Canada	Uzbekistan  China	São Tomé and Príncipe	New Zealand	13
C-2 1000 m	Brazil  Hungary  Poland  Ukraine  Russia  BelarusΔ	RomaniaΔ  Czech Republic  Moldova	Cuba	Uzbekistan	Mozambique	Australia	12
Event	2015 World Championships	Continental qualification					Total
Women		Europe	Americas	Asia	Africa	Oceania
K-1 200 m	New Zealand  Poland  Spain  Azerbaijan  Cuba  Russia∞  France  Kazakhstan  Hungary  Serbia  Slovenia  Turkey	Germany  Sweden  Slovakia  Portugal  Austria	Canada	Uzbekistan	Egypt	Samoa	14
K-1 500 m	New Zealand  Hungary  China  Poland  Azerbaijan  Slovenia  Belarus  Great Britain  Portugal  South Africa  Canada  Brazil*	Germany  Slovakia	United States	Kazakhstan	Tunisia	Australia  PalauTR	15
K-2 500 m	Hungary  Serbia  Germany  Poland  Russia∞  China  Denmark  Romania^Δ  Great Britain	Sweden  Austria	Canada	Kazakhstan	—	Australia	10
K-4 500 m	Argentina  Belarus  Canada*  China  Denmark^  France^  Germany  Great Britain  Hungary  New Zealand  Poland  Serbia  Ukraine	—	—	—	—	—	11

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^* Host quota

• Italic: National federation has qualified a boat but the athlete that did this was already counted in another boat
• ^TR: National federation has received an invitation from the Tripartite Commission
• ^: ICF decided that some of the events in Africa and Oceania needed to be reattributed to the World Championships lists because the events seen as invalid due to lack of eligible competitors.
• º: ICF decided that two quota places were combined and reallocated to the next best ranked NOC not qualified in a larger boat category, should they be available from team boats in the same gender and category.
• Δ: On July 16, 2016, the ICF bans Romania and Belarus sprint teams for a year due to systemic doping.^[5]
• ^∞ On July 25, the ICF revoked four entries held by Russia, as a response to the previous doping bans and to the implications in the 'disappearing positive methodology' set out in the McClaren Report on the nation's state-sponsored doping.^[6]
• *: Canada qualified a composite boat, as it qualified four athlete quotas in the other three women's kayak events.