Beach volleyball in Olympics?

Question

I know US in woman's won beach volleyball with gold, but when I went to nbc.com to see the results for who won silver and bronze I see that 2 sets of teams from china won. I'm really confused I thought each country is represented by one set of 2 players. Again it says that China won both silver and bronze in beach volleyball women's. I also noticed it's the same for the men's as well, where Brazil won silver and bronze too.

Answer 1

a lot of places have two teams. we had two teams in mens and womens but they both got eliminated before they played for a medal.

the chinese team we beat for the gold beat another chinese team before they played us.

Answer 2

That's weird.  I thought that the U.S. women's team played Cuba for the Championship game?

Answer 3

Each country is permitted to have 2 teams (given they both qualify) The U.S. women #1 team (May-Treanor/Walsh) won gold vs. the #1 Chinese team in the "gold medal" game. That gave the #1 Chinese team silver. The #1 Chinese team defeated the #2 Chinese team earlier in the tourney. The #2 Chinese team later rallied to win the bronze medal