A sand field, 4 people, a net and a ball.
That's all you need for beach volleyball.
This sport shares many of the rules of the indoor volleyball stands, such as the 3 touches, or no double touch by the same person. The sand field makes its difference, as it is made of sand and in the open with the wind that can play with the ball; it is a bit smaller than the regular volleyball but not by much. Then, the amount of people from 6 of indoor volleyball goes down to 2, 2 that have plenty to do to cover the field.
About Paris 2024 - men
At Paris, Mol and Sorum, the norvegian duo and defending olympic champions, are, of course, the favourites. However, they had been out of the sand for most of this year due to injury, so, while they showed to be back in full at Vienna Elite 16, last tournament before Paris, the lingering doubt is there.
The other great favourite is the swedish due Ahman/Hellvig, which are the young and now a certainity. With their swedish jumpset, a specific way to raise the ball for the attack, they had grown to one of the best teams in the world. The gold is probably going to be between those two.
Behind them, there are many good teams with great experiences, like the quatar duo Cherif/Ahmed, the italians Cottafava/Nicolai, the polish Bryl/Losiak or the brasilians George/Andre.
About Paris 2024 - women
The two american teams, Nuss/Kloth and Hughes/Cheng, are quite the favourites. But then, right on them there is plenty of good material such as the brazilian teams Carol/Barbara and Ana patricia/Duda, the canadian Melissa/Brandie, the german teams Muller/Tillman and Ludwig/Lippmann, the italian duo Menegatti/Gottardi, the ducth team and european champion Stam/schoon, or the Austrialian duo Mariafe/Clancy, silver at Tokyo, probably the other big favourite.
In any case, it will be a show. The quality is high in both sides of the sky and the Olympics is the Olympics. People have worked 3 long years to go play under the Tour Eiffel and drem for a gold and a name in eternity.