For 130 years of modern Olympic history, no Olympic Games of any kind had been held on African soil. Since Oct. 31, that has been over: Senegal is hosting the Youth Olympic Games, and the host’s teenagers are winning.
President Bassirou Diomaye Faye opened the Games at the Abdoulaye Wade stadium in Diamniadio. “Today it’s not just a nation that is welcoming the Youth Olympic Games, it’s an entire continent that is opening its arms,” he said. International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry said: “This historic moment is for Senegal and for Africa. And for our entire Olympic Movement.”
About 2,665 athletes aged 14 to 17 are competing in 25 sports across Dakar, Diamniadio and Saly, with about 6,000 Senegalese volunteers helping run the event. Senegal fields 136 athletes. Coventry said every African nation has committed to showing the Games live.
The host has delivered. On Saturday, Nov. 7, Elizabeth Diatta won the women’s 55 kg beach wrestling title in Saly and Maguette Diop took the men’s 80 kg title with a 4-0 win over Azerbaijan’s Nihad Suleymanli. Beach wrestling is making its debut in the Youth Olympic program, so those are the first golds the sport has ever handed out at these Games.
On Monday, the Senegal men’s 3×3 basketball team beat Lithuania 14-13 in overtime for gold, after a 12-12 tie in regulation. Frédéric Clovice Mané scored 8 of the team’s points. The path was not easy: Senegal beat Germany 16-15 in the semifinal. The women’s team took bronze, 18-17 over Egypt, on a buzzer-beating two-pointer from Bintou Bangoura.
China led the medal table after the first week, with nine golds. South Africa and Egypt have also won gold. These are African teenagers competing at home, in front of their own crowds.
Black athletes from Africa and the diaspora have filled Olympic podiums for decades, almost always in venues built somewhere else, with the money and the decisions made somewhere else too. A Games in Dakar moves that, even at the youth level. It also brings the first Youth Olympic refugee team made up of athletes based in Africa, and the first Summer Youth Games to achieve full gender equality.
Africa has now hosted an Olympic event. The next test is whether it is ever trusted with the full Games. The Youth Olympics close on Nov. 13.
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