South Sudan competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. South Sudan had been an independent nation since 2011, but its civil war had delayed its membership with the International Olympic Committee until 2015, making 2016 its first official appearance at the Olympic Games. The country was offered three universality placements in athletics, as no South Sudanese athletes met the Olympic qualifying standards prior to the Games. Three athletes, two men and one woman, competed in three track and field events, but did not win any medals. The sole woman, Margret Rumat Hassan, was given a spot eight days prior to the start of the Games that had been allotted previously to Mangar Makur Chuot. This change was against the advice of the South Sudan Athletics Federation and was due allegedly to pressure from Samsung, for whom Hassan had appeared in an advertisement. The flagbearer for both the opening and closing ceremony was Guor Marial, a marathon runner who, then unable to represent South Sudan, had competed as an Independent Olympic Athlete in 2012. Five South Sudanese nationals also competed as members of the Refugee Olympic Team.

Quick Facts South Sudan at the 2016 Summer Olympics, IOC code ...

South Sudan at the 2016 Summer Olympics
IOC code	SSD
NOC	South Sudan National Olympic Committee
in Rio de Janeiro
Competitors	3 in 1 sport
Flag bearer	Guor Marial
Medals	Gold 0 Silver 0 Bronze 0 Total 0
Summer Olympics appearances (overview)
2016 2020 2024
Other related appearances
Sudan (1960–)  Independent Olympic Athletes (2012)

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South Sudan gained its independence from Sudan in 2011, but the South Sudanese Civil War made it difficult for the nation to garner the support of five sport federations as required for its National Olympic Committee to gain recognition by the International Olympic Committee.^[1] Guor Marial, a South Sudanese refugee living in the United States, competed in the men's marathon at the 2012 Summer Olympics, but did so as an Independent Olympic Athlete after refusing to compete for Sudan.^[2] South Sudan became the 206th IOC member in August 2015, with the affiliations of track and field, basketball, association football, handball, judo, table tennis, and taekwondo.^[1] The nation chose Marial at its flagbearer for both the opening and closing ceremonies.^[3]

In addition to South Sudan's official team, five delegates of the ten-member Refugee Olympic Team, James Chiengjiek, Yiech Biel, Paulo Amotun, Rose Lokonyen, and Anjelina Lohalith, were of South Sudanese origin. All were residents of the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, who had settled there following violent conflicts in their homeland.^[4] Lokonyen served as the team's flagbearer in the opening ceremony.^[5]

No South Sudanese athletes met the Olympic qualifying standards, but the nation was allotted three universality places to compete in track and field events. The South Sudan Athletics Federation nominated Marial, Santino Kenyi, and Mangar Makur Chuot to fill these spots. Eight days prior to the start of the Games, however, the South Sudan National Olympic Committee informed Chuot, who had already been accredited, by email that he had been removed from the team.^[6] Chuot was a refugee who had fled the Second Sudanese Civil War after the death of his father and been resettled in Australia in 2008. In 2014 he became the Australian 200 metre champion, but elected to compete for South Sudan rather than Australia at the Games. After his selection for the South Sudanese delegation was confirmed in December 2015, he returned to the country of his birth and became the 2016 South Sudanese 100 and 200 m champion, setting a national record in the latter discipline. The NOC chose Margret Hassan, a competitor in the 200 m event, to take his spot, despite another athlete, national record holder Viola Lado, having posted a better time in the lead up to the Olympics. When the Athletics Federation protested, the NOC claimed that Samsung, who had featured Hassan in one of their advertisements, had pressured the organization to give her one of the spots, an accusation that Samsung denied. When his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport was rejected, Chuot proclaimed his decision to leave the sport.^[6]