Dakar Opens Africa's First Youth Olympic Games
President Faye declares the start of a four-year-delayed event that brings 2,700 teenage athletes to Senegal amidst local budget debates.
By James Foster ·
Dakar, Senegal, officially opened the Youth Olympic Games on Saturday, marking the first time an Olympic event has been held on the African continent. The ceremony took place at the Diamniadio stadium at 6:30 p.m. local time, attended by President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry.
The event features 2,700 athletes aged 14 to 17 who will compete through Nov. 13. Competition venues are spread across three locations: the capital city of Dakar, the nearby city of Diamniadio, and the beach resort of Saly. The program includes 153 medal events across 25 sports, ranging from athletics and swimming to 3-x-3 basketball.
Several sports are making their debut at the Youth Olympics. These include Baseball5, a five-on-five version of baseball played without bats or gloves, and Wushu, a Chinese martial art. The schedule also features coastal rowing beach sprint and beach wrestling, a sport chosen to reflect Senegal's national wrestling tradition on sand. A refugee team of six athletes based in Kenya and Uganda will also compete in track and field, judo, and taekwondo.
The opening ceremony featured hundreds of dancers performing a spectacle centered on Senegalese and African culture. The event's motto, "Africa welcomes, Dakar celebrates," guided the program. The games are represented by a mascot named Ayo, a young lion wearing a traditional Fulani hat. The name Ayo translates to joy in the Yoruba language, which is spoken in Nigeria and neighboring West African countries.
Celebrities with ties to the region attended the event. French actor Omar Sy, who stars in the Netflix series Lupin and has Senegalese roots, was present. He was joined by Khaby Lame, a Senegalese Italian TikTok star. Both serve as ambassadors for the games. Coventry, who became the IOC's first African and first female president last year, arrived in Senegal on Tuesday. She told media that it was time for Africa and time for Senegal.
Russia is participating with a delegation of 13 athletes competing under its national flag. This marks the first time Russian athletes have flown their national flag at an Olympic event since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Previous competitions, including the Paris Olympics in 2024 and the recent Winter Games, saw Russians compete as neutral athletes without national symbols. Coventry has stated that the Olympics should not hold athletes accountable for the actions of their governments.
The games arrive as Senegal manages a debt crisis and public frustration over living costs. The previous administration left billions of dollars in unreported debt, limiting public spending. A government-led foundation announced a contribution of 500 million CFA francs, or about $854,000, to purchase 200,000 tickets for school children. The president's political movement stated the funds came from donors and benefactors. President Faye defended the spending by citing renovated sports facilities, training for young people, and contracts awarded to Senegalese businesses.
Sports analyst Frédéric Sohoundé, based in Dakar, noted that African countries increasingly view sport as a tool for diplomacy and development. He pointed to Morocco's investment in sports facilities as a model for attracting repeated competitions. Sohoundé added that Senegal requires reliable maintenance funding and regular events after the games to prevent its venues from becoming unused facilities.
