Dakar Youth Olympic Games Open: First Olympic Event in Africa Draws Some 2,700 Young Athletes
The fourth Summer Youth Olympic Games opened on Saturday (October 31) at the Abdoulaye Wade Stadium in Diamniadio, near Senegal's capital Dakar. It is the first time an Olympic event has been held on the African continent since the modern Olympic Games began in 1896. Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry attended the opening ceremony.
Some 2,700 athletes aged 14 to 17 from 206 delegations will compete in 25 sports and 153 medal events across Dakar, Diamniadio and the coastal resort of Saly, with the Games running until the closing ceremony on November 13. Host nation Senegal fields 136 athletes, and about 6,000 volunteers are helping to run the event. The Youth Olympic Village is located at Amadou Mahtar Mbow University in Diamniadio.
The Games set several firsts: the first Youth Olympic Games with a fully equal split of quota places between female and male athletes, the first appearance of a Refugee Olympic Team at a Youth Olympic Games — six athletes, most of them based in Africa — and the Youth Olympic debuts of Baseball5 and wushu. The United States has sent 29 athletes.
Dakar was awarded the Games in 2018, originally for 2022, before they were postponed to 2026 because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Youth Olympic Games, first held in 2010, bring together the world's best young athletes and are regarded as a key stage in developing the next generation of Olympians.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于塞内加尔 Diamniadio 的 Dakar Arena，本届青奥会比赛场馆之一（资料图）。Isabelle Lemelin 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Dakar Arena in Diamniadio, Senegal, one of the venues of these Youth Olympic Games (file photo). Photo by Isabelle Lemelin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
