Germany, Argentina and the Netherlands finished in first, second and third place respectively in the men’s International Hockey Federation (FIH) World League 2014/2015 semi-final, held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and secured their places at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. The semi-final concluded on Sunday (14 June) and the teams join India in the line-up for the Rio 2016 men’s hockey competition.

Reigning double Olympic champions, Germany, who won gold at Beijing 2008 and London 2012, continued their winning streak to take the top spot in the first World League semi-final, defeating their Argentine hosts by 4-1. Meanwhile, the Netherlands beat Canada 6-0 in the race for the third and final Olympic spot up for grabs last Sunday.

In the men’s 2014/2015 World League, 20 national teams play in four rounds over a two-year period at venues across the globe. Round one took place in 2014, round two happened between January and March this year, and the first of two semi-finals began on 3 June and finished last Sunday (14). The second men’s semi-final is scheduled for 20 June to 5 July in Antwerp, and the final will take place from 5-13 December in Rosario, Argentina. The top three teams from each semi-final are guaranteed places at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

The women’s hockey division runs a parallel qualifying tournament. The first semi-final began on the 10 June and runs until 21, in Valencia, Spain, and will yield three women’s Olympic contenders to join the Republic of Korea in the Rio 2016 women’s hockey line-up. The second of the women's semi-finals will take place alongside the men’s competition in Antwerp, Belgium.

Placed third, the Netherlands also secured at spot at the Olympic Games (Photo: FIH)

In total, 24 teams (12 in the men’s and 12 in the women’s) will take part in Olympic hockey competitions at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, with all 24 to be defined by the end of 2015. Two teams – India in the men’s and the Republic of Korea in the women’s section – qualified at the Asian Games in October 2014.

The 2014/2015 World League will yield a further 12 teams – six men’s and six women’s teams from the male and female semi-final competitions – plus at least one additional team, as explained below.

The seventh-best-placed women’s team in the World League tournament will also qualify for Rio 2016. This team will take the Olympic spot normally reserved for the host country, which Brazil’s women’s team was unable to accept after it failed to meet the FIH’s performance criteria required to compete in the Olympic Games. The Brazilian’s men’s team still have a chance to take up their Olympic spot, provided they finish among the six best teams at the Pan American Games next month, otherwise their Olympic place will be given to the seventh-placed men’s team from the World League tournament.

Four other continental champions in each gender (from the Americas, Europe, Africa and Oceania) will secure Olympic places in tournaments to be held later this year. If the winners of the continental championships have already qualified for Rio 2016, the vacant Olympic spots will be awarded to the next best-performing countries from the World League who have not already qualified for the Games.

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