The Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games are set to start on October 31, running through November 13. This is the first time an Olympic event will be held on African soil. Dakar, Senegal’s capital, is set to host 2700 athletes from over 200 nations aged 15 to 18, competing in 25 disciplines, across venues in Dakar and Diamniadio, new city on the outskirts of Dakar, and the coastal city of Saly.

What are the Youth Olympic Games, you might ask? The Youth Olympics Games are Olympic Games organized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for athletes aged 15 to 18 competing in a program based on that of the Olympic Games, with a few new additional sports such as Wushu Taolu, Baseball5, futsal, and rowing coastal beach sprints which will be making their debut at this edition. The very first summer edition took place in Singapore in 2010, while the winter version took place in 2012 in Austria. The last summer YOG took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2018, until the games went into hiatus due to the COVID 2020 pandemic. This year, the event is coming to Senegal marking the first time an Olympic event will take place on the African continent. This is also the first time that the IOC has an African president in the person of Zimbabwean champion swimmer Kirsty Coventry. Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge, who is regarded as one of the greatest marathon runners of all time, has been named Dakar 2026 Global ambassador to inspire the new generations alongside Brazilian skateboarding star and two-time Olympic medallist Rayssa Leal; Kipchoge has competed at five Olympic Games, winning four medals, including consecutive marathon golds at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.

Away from the field of play, there will be a lot of educational, interactive activities, workshops, cultural exchange programs, team-building exercises, and youth engagement activities. Last month, Senegal-inspired medals were unveiled with designs showing the baobab and lion motifs. The lion to symbolize strength and courage, two essential qualities in sport; while the baobab, an emblematic tree of the ‘Land of Teranga’ and, more broadly, of the entire African continent, evokes strength, longevity, wisdom and the passing on of knowledge, echoing the concept of passing wisdom onto future generations.

Let the games begin, may new talents be revealed, and may Africa shine!!!