The
Croatian Olympic Committee (,
HOO) fielded a team of 87 athletes, 68 men and 19 women, across eighteen sports at the Games; it was the nation's fourth-largest delegation sent to the Olympics, but the smallest since
2004. More than 50 percent of the men's side competed in traditional team sports, with the water polo players looking to defend their Olympic title from the London Games four years earlier. Track and field accounted for the largest number of athletes on the squad by an individual-based sport, with 10 entries. There was a single competitor each in diving, judo, table tennis, weightlifting, and wrestling. Nine of the past Olympic medalists from the individual-based sports returned, including defending champions
Giovanni Cernogoraz (men's trap shooting) and
Sandra Perković (women's discus throw), taekwondo fighter
Lucija Zaninović (women's 49 kg), along with her twin sister
Ana, rifle shooter
Snježana Pejčić, gymnast
Filip Ude (men's pommel horse), and experienced high jumper
Blanka Vlašić. Rowers
Damir Martin and brothers
Martin and
Valent Sinković, all of whom won silver as members of the quadruple sculls crew from
London 2012, qualified separately for the smaller boats at the Games, with the latter two entering as reigning world champions and top medal favorites in the double sculls. Other notable athletes on the Croatian roster included world sailing champions
Šime Fantela and
Igor Marenić in the men's 470 class, world-ranked tennis player
Marin Čilić, and boxing pro
Filip Hrgović (men's super heavyweight). Water polo goalkeeper
Josip Pavić, who helped his team secure a gold-medal triumph in the men's tournament at London 2012, was selected by the committee as Croatia's flag bearer for the opening ceremony. ==Athletics==