| Date | 11 August 2016 |
|---|---|
| Status | Olympic |
| Location | Arena Carioca 2, Parque Olímpico da Barra, Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro |
| Participants | 34 from 34 countries |
Czech Lukáš Krpálek dedicated his gold medal to his friend Alexandr Jurecka. Non-Olympian Jurecka, who competed in European and World Championships, and was expected to be a candidate for the Rio Olympics, died in a diving accident in Lake Garda in Italy in 2015. During his competition in Rio, Krpálek always had a photo of Jurecka at hand. The third-seeded Czech faced favorite Elmar Qasımov from Azerbaijan in the final, after defeating the second-seeded Cyrille Maret from France in the semi-final by an Ippon (full point) with just seconds to go. In an otherwise scoreless fight, Krpálek applied an Ouchi-gari (big inner reap) for an Ippon after 4:36 min to win his country’s first ever judo medal after the separation from Slovakia. Qasımov had to settle for silver.
Maret and the 2015 World Champion Ryunosuke Haga of Japan both defeated well-known opponents by Ippon in their bronze medal contests. Maret beat German World Championship runner-up Karl-Richard Frey and Haga beat the Ukrainian Artem Bloshenko . None of the three competing 2012 medalists advanced to the quarter-final.
| Date | 11 August 2016 — 10:00 |
|---|---|
| Format | Winners advance to round two. |
| Date | 11 August 2016 |
|---|---|
| Format | Winners advance to round three. |
| Date | 11 August 2016 |
|---|---|
| Format | Winners advance to quarter-finals. |
| Match | Date/Time | Location | Competitor | NOC | Result | Competitor | NOC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Match #1 | 11 Aug | Mat 1 | Elmar Qasımov | AZE | Waza-ari | Lyes Bouyacoub | ALG | |
| Match #2 | 11 Aug | Mat 1 | Ramadan Darwish | EGY | Yuko | José Armenteros | CUB | |
| Match #3 | 11 Aug | Mat 1 | Artem Bloshenko | UKR | Ippon | Jo Gu-Ham | KOR | |
| Match #4 | 11 Aug | Mat 1 | Karl-Richard Frey | GER | Ippon | Yan Naing Soe | MYA | |
| Match #5 | 11 Aug | Mat 1 | Cyrille Maret | FRA | Yuko | Henk Grol | NED | |
| Match #6 | 11 Aug | Mat 1 | Beka Gviniashvili | GEO | Ippon | Toma Nikiforov | BEL | |
| Match #7 | 11 Aug | Mat 1 | Lukáš Krpálek | CZE | Penalty | Maksim Rakov | KAZ | |
| Match #8 | 11 Aug | Mat 1 | Ryunosuke Haga | JPN | Penalty | Rafael Buzacarini | BRA |
| Date | 11 August 2016 |
|---|---|
| Format | Winners advance to semi-finals. Losers advance to repêchage for bronze medal tournament. |
| Match | Date/Time | Location | Competitor | NOC | Result | Competitor | NOC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Match #1 | 11 Aug | Mat 1 | Elmar Qasımov | AZE | Ippon | Ramadan Darwish | EGY | |
| Match #2 | 11 Aug | Mat 1 | Artem Bloshenko | UKR | Waza-ari | Karl-Richard Frey | GER | |
| Match #3 | 11 Aug | Mat 2 | Cyrille Maret | FRA | Waza-ari | Beka Gviniashvili | GEO | |
| Match #4 | 11 Aug | Mat 2 | Lukáš Krpálek | CZE | Penalty | Ryunosuke Haga | JPN |
| Date | 11 August 2016 |
|---|---|
| Format | Winners advance to bronze medal matches. |
| Match | Date/Time | Location | Competitor | NOC | Result | Competitor | NOC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Match #1 | 11 Aug | Mat 1 | Karl-Richard Frey | GER | Ippon | Ramadan Darwish | EGY | |
| Match #2 | 11 Aug | Mat 1 | Ryunosuke Haga | JPN | Penalty | Beka Gviniashvili | GEO |
| Date | 11 August 2016 |
|---|---|
| Format | Winners advance to gold medal final. Losers advance to bronze medal matches. |
| Match | Date/Time | Location | Competitor | NOC | Result | Competitor | NOC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Match #1 | 11 Aug | Mat 1 | Elmar Qasımov | AZE | Ippon | Artem Bloshenko | UKR | |
| Match #2 | 11 Aug | Mat 1 | Lukáš Krpálek | CZE | Ippon | Cyrille Maret | FRA |
| Date | 11 August 2016 |
|---|
| Match | Date/Time | Location | Competitor | NOC | Result | Competitor | NOC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Match #3/5 | 11 Aug | Mat 1 | Cyrille Maret | FRA | Ippon | Karl-Richard Frey | GER | |
| Match #3/5 | 11 Aug | Mat 1 | Ryunosuke Haga | JPN | Ippon | Artem Bloshenko | UKR | |
| Match #1/2 | 11 Aug | Mat 1 | Lukáš Krpálek | CZE | Ippon | Elmar Qasımov | AZE |