Dakar 2026 Is Open: Africa's First Olympic Event Starts With a Fencer and a Judoka at the Cauldron and 29 Americans in the Parade

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Dakar 2026 Is Open: Africa's First Olympic Event Starts With a Fencer and a Judoka at the Cauldron and 29 Americans in the Parade

Senegal's president declared the Youth Olympic Games open on Oct. 31 at Abdoulaye Wade Stadium. About 2,700 athletes aged 14 to 17 compete in 25 sports through Nov. 13, including a 29-athlete Team USA. Here is what opened and what comes first.

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The Olympic flame left Athens on Sept. 10, crossed all 14 regions of Senegal and reached a 55,000-seat stadium outside Dakar on Saturday night, where a fencer and a judoka lit the cauldron. Africa has its first Olympic event.

President Bassirou Diomaye Faye declared the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games open at 7:57 p.m. local time at Abdoulaye Wade Stadium in Diamniadio, per the International Handball Federation. Senegalese fencer Abdourahmane Marième Sy and judoka Aïcha Diop lit the cauldron. IOC President Kirsty Coventry attended, per Xinhua, and the Games were originally awarded for 2022 before the pandemic pushed them back four years.

A Refugee Team in the Parade for the First Time

Greece entered first, as always. The Refugee Youth Olympic Team marched second, the first time a refugee team has taken part in a Youth Olympic Games, and Senegal came last. More than 1,000 performers worked a ceremony built around a story called "The Rise of Sitoé," told across three generations, with about 100 wrestlers performing the bakk and 360 dancers forming a map of Africa's 54 countries behind singer Baaba Maal. Coventry's message to the athletes ran five words: "Be brave. Make new friends."

2,700 Athletes, 25 Sports, 29 Americans

About 2,700 athletes aged 14 to 17 compete through Nov. 13 in Dakar, Diamniadio and the beach town of Saly, in 25 sports. Baseball5 and wushu are new to the program, and Baseball5 competition started a day before the ceremony. The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee sent 29 athletes in 12 sports, ages 13 to 18, including a 12-player rugby sevens team. The United States won 18 medals at the last Youth Games in Buenos Aires in 2018.

Competition opens in full on Sunday. Swimming runs Nov. 1 to 6, and beach handball, with eight men's and eight women's teams at Saly Beach, starts Nov. 9 with medal matches on the final day. BallerTube previewed Team USA's roster last week; results from Dakar will run on the BallerTube youth sports page as they come in.