All you need to know about the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympics

On Saturday, 31 October the Olympic rings will be raised for an event hosted on African soil for the first time as Senegal stages the Youth Olympic Games.

The cities of Dakar, Diamniadio and Saly will host 15 days of competition running until 13 November.

About 2,700 athletes are set to compete across 25 sports, with 153 medal events.

There will also be 10 engagement sports held without medals awarded.

Organised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the event is an elite multi-sport competition for athletes predominantly aged from 15 to 17.

The aim is not only to inspire young people, but also to promote Olympic values and encourage them to see sport as a vehicle for peace and solidarity.

First held in Singapore in 2010, the Youth Olympics contain several elements of the senior Games but add newer sports, mixed-gender events and cultural activities.

Nanjing, China, staged the second edition in 2014 and Argentina's capital Buenos Aires was the venue four years later.

Dakar was due to host in 2022 before the Covid-19 pandemic forced its postponement.

Since its inception, several participants have gone on to top the podium at the Olympic Games.

South African swimmer Chad le Clos and British taekwondo athlete Jade Jones featured at the the inaugural edition in Singapore and two years later became Olympic champions at London 2012.

American sprinter Noah Lyles claimed 200m gold in Nanjing 12 years ago before winning 100m gold at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Having the Youth Olympics in Senegal is "monumental" for the continent, according to IOC official Christophe Dubi.

"Africa has hosted many international competitions but this is the first time we have anything labelled with the Olympic rings," he told BBC Sport Africa.

Thierno Cisse, deputy chief operating officer of the Local Organising Committee (LOC), says the whole country feels the weight of the moment.

"We know we are going to be ambassadors for Africa," he said.

"It's really important for us to proudly represent the whole continent and show that Africa has high standards."

There is another link to the top of the Olympic movement.

Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry, who last year became the first woman and first African to be elected president of the IOC, previously chaired the coordination commission for Dakar 2026.

Youth unemployment remains a pressing issue across much of Africa, the world's youngest continent, including in Senegal.

While some residents remain sceptical, organisers hope these Games can provide both immediate and longer-term benefits through employment, tourism, volunteer programmes and skills development.

More than 400 young Africans have already received training in event operations, logistics, technology, accreditation and venue management.

"The impact will be much wider," Dubi claimed. "It starts with sports and this is where it will permeate across the continent."

Nineteen of the 25 competition sports, including athletics, swimming and more youth-focused events like breaking and skateboarding, are ones which were held at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Beach handball, beach wrestling, futsal and rowing coastal beach sprints are also included alongside Baseball5 and Wushu Taolu, which are both making their debut at the Youth Olympics.

Baseball5, an urban, simplified version of traditional baseball requiring no equipment, will kick off competition at Dakar 2026 on Friday, 30 October.

Wushu Taolu is a modern Chinese martial art practiced competitively via choreographed sequences and sparring, while the coastal rowing takes place on the sea, unlike traditional Olympic rowing.

Golf, karate and surfing are among the 10 engagement sports staged to encourage participation among locals.

Climbing, hockey, modern pentathlon, paddlesport (canoe slalom and canoe sprint), shooting, tennis and weightlifting round out the events intended to deliver gender equality across the Youth Olympics for the first time.

Africa prepares for historic Olympic moment at Dakar 2026

Rather than constructing an expensive collection of new venues, organisers have focused on renovating and repurposing existing facilities that can continue serving local communities after the Games.

Dakar hosts athletics, rugby sevens and futsal at the historic Iba Mar Diop complex, while swimming, 3x3 basketball, breaking, skateboarding and Baseball5 will take place at the waterfront Tour de l'Oeuf complex.

Road cycling races will be staged along the Corniche Ouest.

The new city of Diamniadio, being developed south east of Dakar, will serve as the operational heart of the Games.

The Abdoulaye Wade Stadium there will host the opening ceremony and archery competition, with badminton at the Dakar Arena.

The Dakar Expo Centre welcomes gymnastics, fencing, table tennis, judo and Wushu Taolu.

Senegal's Atlantic coastline in Saly provides the backdrop for sailing, triathlon, beach handball and coastal rowing at Saly Plage Ouest.

The Games are also designed as a celebration of Senegalese and African culture.

The mascot Ayo, a young lion, was designed by a student while another chose the name from the Yoruba word meaning joy.

The Dakar 2026 medals feature a lion on one side and a baobab tree on the other, with the images intended to represent both Senegal and Africa's heritage, resilience and longevity.

The official song 'Teranga', the Wolof word for hospitality, is performed by Senegalese artist Mamy Mbaye, and the athletes' village programme includes lessons in traditional sabar and djembe drumming and dance.

The Olympic flame was lit in Athens on 10 September and reached Dakar two days later. Since then it has travelled around 3,600km through all 14 regions of Senegal, with about 450 torchbearers over 30 stages.

The tour ends on 30 October at Place de la Nation in Dakar before the flame lights the cauldron at the opening ceremony a day later.

Nigerian wrestling star Blessing Oborududu and Algerian Olympic gymnastics champion Kaylia Nemour are among those who have been recruited to inspire competitors.

Ambassadors for the Games include Senegal football captain Kalidou Koulibaly, Kenyan marathon legend Eliud Kipchoge and social media star Khaby Lame.

Kipchoge has taken on a particularly significant role, mentoring the refugee team making its debut at a Youth Olympics, having been introduced at the senior Games at Rio 2016.

Six young athletes, identified through trials and development programmes in East Africa, will compete in athletics, judo and taekwondo, and receive education and wellbeing support.

Neither the LOC nor the IOC could provide a figure on what the Games will cost when asked by the BBC, but Senegal's government committed to spend at least $60m (£44.8m) as part of the host contract.

There are also loans, thought to have increased to around $90m (£67.2m), being spent on long-term sports infrastructure projects.

The Abdoulaye Wade Stadium, which opened in 2022, cost a reported $270m (£202m).

A post-Games impact report should reveal the ultimate cost, but both the LOC and IOC say the event should be judged by its legacy.

"The Games are opening a whole range of new sports that are not famous here," said Cisse.

"Maybe we'll be able to say in 20 years from now that some champions were discovered."

For Dubi, the ambition is wider than Senegal.

"It's not only about sport. People will be amazed by what they will see."

That may ultimately be Dakar 2026's greatest achievement: not simply bringing the Olympic rings to Africa for the first time, but allowing the world to experience the movement through an African lens.