After play concluded for the day at the Gstaad Major in Switzerland, the FIVB hosted the drawing of the lots to create the pools for the Rio Olympics. The top seed in each of the six pools was determined in advance by World Tour rankings, and names were drawn to fill out the remaining three spots in each pool.

After much pomp and circumstance, the names were announced, and the beach volleyball pools for the 2016 Rio Olympics are as follows:

2016 Rio Olympics Beach Volleyball Pools

Women's

Pool A
Talita Antunes/Larissa Franca, Brazil
Monika Brzostek/Kinga Kolosinska, Poland
Lauren Fendrick/Brooke Sweat, United States
Russian Team, TBA

Pool B
Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas, Brazil
Elsa Baquerizo/Liliana Fernandez, Spain
Ana Gallay/Georgina Klug, Argentina
Marketa Slukova and Barbora Hermannova, Czech Republic

Pool C
April Ross/Kerri Walsh Jennings, United States
Isabelle Forrer/Anouk Verge-Depre, Switzerland
Fan Wang/Yuan Yue, China
Mariafe Artacho/Nicole Laird, Australia

Pool D
Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst, Germany
Marta Menegatti/Viktoria Orsi Toth, Italy
Jamie Broder/Kristina Valjas, Canada
Doaa Elghobashy/Nada Meawad, Egypt

Pool E
Heather Bansley/Sarah Pavan, Canada
Karla Borger/Britta Buthe, Germany
Joana Heidrich/Nadine Zumkehr, Switzerland
Jantine van der Vlist/Sophie van Gestel, Netherlands

Pool F
Madelein Meppelink/Marleen Van Iersel, Netherlands
Louise Bawden/Taliqua Clancy, Australia
Karen Cope Charles/Nathalia Alfaro, Costa Rica
Olaya Pazo/Norisbeth Agudo, Venezuela

Men's

Pool A
Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt, Brazil
Adrian Carambula/Alex Ranghieri, Italy
Clemens Doppler/Alexander Horst, Austria
Canadian Team, TBA

Pool B
Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen, Netherlands
Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak, Poland
Markus Bockermann/Lars Fluggen, Germany
Russian Team, TBA

Pool C
Phil Dalhausser/Nick Lucena, United States
Daniele Lupo/Paolo Nicolai, Italy
Lombardo Ontiveros/Juan Virgen, Mexico
Choaib Belhaj/Mohamed Naceur, Tunisia

Pool D
Evandro Goncalves/Pedro Solberg, Brazil
Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins, Latvia
Ben Saxton/Chaim Schalk, Canada
Nivaldo Diaz/Sergio Gonzalez, Cuba

Pool E
Reinder Nummerdor/Christiaan Varenhorst, Netherlands
Viacheslav Krasilnikov/Konstantin Semenov, Russia
Grzegorz Fijalek/Mariusz Prudel, Poland
Esteban Grimalt/Marco Grimalt, Chile

Pool F
Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson, United States
Adrian Gavira/Pablo Herrera, Spain
Alexander Huber/Robin Seidl, Austria
Jefferson Pereira/Cherif Younousse, Qatar