Olympic Games of African countries threatened the IOC with a boycott to force them to ban South Africa and Rhodesia, because of their segregationist regimes. New Zealand was also one of the African boycott targets, because its national rugby union team had toured apartheid-ruled South Africa. The IOC conceded in the first two cases, but refused to ban New Zealand on the grounds that rugby was not an Olympic sport. Fulfilling their threat, twenty African countries were joined by Guyana and Iraq in a withdrawal from the Montreal Games, after a few of their athletes had already competed. Taiwan was excluded from
South Africa at the 2018 Commonwealth Games top nine ranked nations from the Commonwealth in the 2016–17 World Rugby Sevens Series ranking. South Africa also qualified a women's team of 12. This qualification came after the South African women's team won the African Cup in 2017. The gold and silver medalist of Africa would then automatically qualify for the 2018 games. The silver medalists were Kenya. South Africa participated with 4 athletes (4 men). A total of 25 South African Swimmers has qualified for the games. This includes 2 para-swimmers. <nowiki>*</nowiki> Competed in heats only. South Africa participated with 1 athlete (1 man). South Africa participated with