The Youth Olympic Games in Senegal can be called long-suffering. They were supposed to be held back in 2022, but Covid intervened. The competitions were postponed for four years, with the start on October 31, 2026. The program has been heavily cut, preparations were accompanied by scandals, and the future of these Games is generally in question.
Officially, the fourth Summer Youth Games in Dakar are presented as a historic event: for the first time the Olympics will be held in Africa. However, the decision has many critics. Almost 37% of Senegal’s population lives below the poverty line, official unemployment exceeds 23% (by some estimates up to 60%), and public debt is about 130% of GDP. The country was hit hard by the energy crisis. Under these conditions, hosting even a reduced Games is a serious burden.
The number of sports was cut from 32 to 25, and the number of disciplines was cut from 241 to 151 (compared with Buenos Aires 2018). Nevertheless, more than 90 billion CFA francs were allocated from the budget, and another 39 billion is a loan from the French Development Agency. Within Senegal this caused harsh criticism: in a country where a third of the population has no electricity and rural schools often do not even have desks, spending on a two-week sports show looks strange.
For the IOC, the Games in Africa are primarily an image project. After scandals over commercialization, corruption suspicions and disputes over the admission of transgender people, it is important for the committee to present itself as a progressive organization oriented not only toward rich countries. IOC President Kirsty Coventry, the first African woman in this post, is personally interested in its success.
The Russian national team is going in a limited composition (13 athletes) and under its own flag. The IOC recommended restoring the rights of Russians, but some federations, in particular World Athletics, ignored the recommendation. Russian track and field athletes will not go to Dakar.
The future of the Youth Games is murky: the selection of hosts for 2030 has already been stopped. The IOC speaks of the need to rethink the goals of these competitions. For now, politics and double standards in youth sports have not gone away, and admission remains an instrument of pressure.
