Senegal has opened the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, bringing an Olympic event to Africa for the first time, as the continent seeks a bigger role in international sporting competition.
About 2,700 athletes aged 14 to 17 will compete until 13 November in the capital, in the nearby city of Diamniadio and at the beach resort of Saly, Africanews reported with the Associated Press. There are 153 medal events across 25 sports.
President Bassirou Diomaye Faye was scheduled to declare the Games open at 6.30pm local time, 0830 GMT, at the stadium in Diamniadio, with the International Olympic Committee president, Kirsty Coventry, and several heads of state expected to attend.
Hundreds of dancers joined a spectacle celebrating Senegalese and African culture, in line with the Games motto "Africa welcomes, Dakar celebrates".
The mascot is Ayo, a young lion wearing a traditional Fulani hat. Its name means "joy" in Yoruba, a language spoken in Nigeria and neighbouring West African countries. The ambassadors for the Games include the French actor Omar Sy, who has Senegalese roots, and the Senegalese Italian social media star Khaby Lame.
Several sports are making their Youth Olympic debuts. They include Baseball5, a five-on-five version of baseball played without bats and gloves; Wushu, a Chinese martial art that can be choreography-based or a combat sport; and coastal rowing beach sprint, which combines a run on the beach with a head-to-head rowing race. Beach wrestling features for the first time as well, a nod to Senegalese wrestling, the national sport, which is also performed on sand.
The first refugee team at a Youth Olympics will field six athletes based in Kenya and Uganda, in track and field, judo and taekwondo.
The Youth Olympics are a smaller competition than the Summer Games. Singapore hosted the first summer edition in 2010. Dakar was initially due to host in 2022, but the coronavirus pandemic delayed the Games by four years.
It is that last fact this newspaper wishes to put on the record properly, because it has been handled with considerable skill. The Games were awarded for 2022. They are being held in 2026. They are called Dakar 2026.
A four-year delay is therefore nowhere to be found in the title, the branding or the results. The event is late by four years and punctual to the day, and the two statements are compatible because one of them refers to the plan and the other to the name.
Our analysts note that the method is consistent with the rest of the programme, which is built on removal. Take the bats and gloves out of baseball and you have Baseball5, a new sport with its own medals. Take the water out of the first part of a rowing race and you have coastal rowing beach sprint. Take 2022 out of Dakar 2022 and you have Dakar 2026, which has never been postponed.
The Department of Unnecessary Research congratulates Senegal, and has one suggestion for the closing ceremony. Nothing in the Olympic Charter appears to prevent a host city from simply being given the year in which it is ready.