The Canadian men’s team and the USA women’s side are the latest teams to have their places in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games hockey tournament confirmed by the International Hockey Federation (FIH). Both teams booked their places in Brazil through their performances at the Pan-American Games in Toronto, which came to an end on Sunday (26 July).

Canada’s men lost 3-0 to Argentina in Saturday’s final, but they had already confirmed their place in Rio by reaching the gold medal match. By winning in Toronto, Argentina took continental qualification spot, however, as they had already qualified for next year’s Olympic Games via the World League, Canada earned a place in Rio as the next best placed team in the World League.

Canada were the second men’s team to confirm their presence in Rio via the Pan-American Games. Last week Brazil fulfilled the host nation qualification criteria by reaching the semi-finals, where they lost to Canada in a penalty shoot-out after the game ended 0-0. Canada and Brazil join the six teams who qualified for Rio via the World League – Germany, Netherlands, Argentina, Australia, Belgium and Great Britain – plus India, who qualified by winning last year’s Asian Games tournament.

The USA women’s team triumphed 2-1 over Argentina in the Pan-American Games final on Friday (24 July) and confirmed their place in Rio as the continental champions. Argentina had already qualified via the World League, and the USA would have qualified for the Olympic Games – as the next highest ranked team in the World League – even if they had lost the gold medal match in Toronto.

The USA women’s team joins New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Great Britain, China, Germany, Argentina, the Netherlands and Australia in Rio.

The men’s and women’s hockey tournaments at Rio 2016 will best contested by 12 teams. The final three teams in each gender will be confirmed this year at the Euro Championships (21-30 August), the Oceania Cup (21-25 October) and the Africa Cup for Nations (17-25 October).

For more information on the FIH qualifying process and to track who has qualified, click here for the men and here for the women.

Follow the race to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games here.

Rio2016.com is not an absolute authority on qualification for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which is an ongoing process. Final places will only be confirmed in July 2016 (for the Olympic Games) and August 2016 (for the Paralympic Games). The qualification systems are defined by each sport’s respective International Federation and the International Olympic Committee or International Paralympic Committee, and are subject to change. When an athlete or team wins a quota place for their nation, the final decision on whether this ‘slot’ is used and which athletes are sent is taken by the respective National Olympic Committee or National Paralympic Committee (NOC or NPC). Even when athletes win a ‘nominal’ place for themselves, NOCs/NPCs may have to decide who to send if the number of qualified athletes from one country exceeds the quota.