Beach Volleyball - Team Samba/Janko

General
Ahmed Tijan and Cherif Younousse are the reigning Asian Games champions and Olympic bronze medallists. Five years ago, they defeated Indonesia's Ade Candra Rachmawan and Mohammad Ashfiya in straight sets in the final at the 2018 Asian Games, which was both players' Asian Games debut. At the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, they defeated Latvia's Martins Plavins and Edgars Tocs in straight sets in the bronze medal match.

Tijan and Younousse first competed together in 2014 when they appeared at the U21 world championships, and they teamed up permanently in 2017. In 2018 they made their first World Beach Pro Tour podiums as a pair with third-place finishes in Doha and Vienna, before they claimed the Asian Games and Asian championship titles later that year. They went on to also triumph at the Asian championships in 2019 and 2022, but were knocked out in the quarterfinals by Australia's Thomas Hodges and Zachery Schubert at the 2023 Asian Championships in Fuzhou.

The pair claimed their first World Beach Pro Tour Elite16 title in 2022 in Rosarito, Mexico, and their first Elite16 podium finish of the 2023 season came when they were runners-up in Ostrava, Czech Republic. At the 2022 World Championships in Rome, they lost in the round of 16 to Brazilians Bruno Schmidt and Saymon.

Tokyo was Tijan's Olympic debut, while Younousse competed at his second Games after Rio, where he and former teammate Jefferson Pereira became the first Qatari beach volleyball team to play at the Olympic Games.