JOJ DAKAR 2026: From the Peloponnese to the shores of Teranga, the odyssey of the Builders (By Fatimata Diallo BA)

The Youth Olympic Games (YOG), the first Olympic event in African history, will open in Dakar on October 31st. In the spirit of Pindar, let's look back at the team that brought Senegal here, and those who paved the way.

"Water is the first of all goods, gold shines like a fire in the night, but to sing of the games, my heart, do not seek a star more radiant than the sun." It was in these terms that Pindar opened his first Olympian ode, reminding us that of all human celebrations, none surpasses the splendor of the gathering at Olympia.

Among the ancient Greeks, the festival opened with the sacred truce, which imposed silence on weapons and concord on cities to give way to the emulation of bodies and minds.

On September 10, 2026, in the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, the very same one that had hosted the first modern Games in 1896, priestesses drew the flame from the rays of daylight, then laid it down in a lantern. It crossed the sea.

On October 31st, she will light the cauldron of the Youth Olympic Games. Following Pindaric tradition, those who wove the wreath must now be named.

In February 2018, in Pyeongchang, on the eve of the Winter Games, the IOC voted on a motion: the 2022 Youth Olympic Games would go to an African country for the first time.

Senegal declared its support that same month, through the voice of the man the country simply calls Diagna. Facing Botswana, Nigeria, and Tunisia, a team was needed.

The case will be led by a core group of five men: Mamadou Diagna Ndiaye, Baïdy Agne, Ibrahima Wade, Babacar Wade and Seydina Oumar Diagne who will lead it to victory in Buenos Aires.

Mamadou Diagna Ndiaye has presided over the Senegalese National Olympic and Sports Committee for twenty years and has been a member of the IOC since 2015. In the time of Olympia, heralds left the city of Elis to announce the games and the truce to the entire Greek world. Diagna, for his part, has made numerous journeys, from Beijing to Milan, first to reach the continent, then the world.

Its language is that of hospitality, which Greece placed under the protection of Zeus and which Senegal calls teranga: "Africa welcomes, Dakar celebrates," says the motto of the Games. In Athens, it was into its hands that the President of the Greek Olympic Committee placed the torch.

In December 2024, he recalled that he had not accepted, in order to chair the organizing committee, any salary, plane tickets, allowances, or official accommodation: "I prefer that all of that goes into the coffers of the Olympic Games." The winner of Olympia received an olive wreath.

Diagna received the Olympic Silver Order in 2024. Alongside him, Baïdy Agne, President of the National Council of Employers of Senegal, Vice-President of the Senegalese Olympic Committee, President of the Senegalese Golf Federation from 2012 to 2025, elected in 2025 to head Business Africa, brings the credibility of the country's companies and an intimate knowledge of social balances.

Pindar recounts that at the entrance to the Black Sea, the Argo had to pass between two living rocks that clashed and crushed ships. After the heroes had passed, they froze forever. The preparation for the Games had its own set of challenges: the threat of a strike at the worst possible moment, an electrical grid whose risk of implosion this electrical engineering graduate pointed out early on. Through continuous dialogue with social partners, he worked to ensure that construction sites didn't stop, and that foreign delegations, as well as the parents entrusting a sixteen-year-old to Dakar, maintained their confidence.

He also wanted sports academies in coastal towns, from where the canoes carrying migrants depart, to offer their youth an alternative to the sea. More than two hundred new sports-related professions have been identified.

The General Coordinator of the Games, Ibrahima Wade, a Treasury inspector and former Secretary General of the Government, has presided over the Senegalese Equestrian Sports Federation since 2008. He assessed the task frankly: "No one in this country had previously worked on the organization of the Olympic Games."

The committee was joined by Babacar Wade, whom Diagna described as "very meticulous about spending." The accounts were processed by a trustee and reported monthly to the Ministry of Finance.

On October 8, 2018, in Buenos Aires, the IOC members raised their hands together in support of Dakar. His Excellency President Macky Sall was present and had committed the nation to the bid. That day, he spoke on behalf of the continent: "It is all of Africa, the cradle of humanity in terms of its history and the youngest continent in terms of its population, that will welcome the world's young athletes in 2022." He promised a brand-new stadium with fifty thousand seats; it will be the Diamniadio stadium, named after Abdoulaye Wade, that the Olympic flame will reach on October 31.

On July 15, 2020, the pandemic forced Senegal and the IOC to postpone the Games for four years. Diagna said the postponement allowed for a better-defined scale of the Games.

The Senegalese Olympic Committee was founded on August 31, 1961. Iba Mar Diop presided over it from 1979 to 1985. The Medina Stadium, rebuilt for these Games, bears his name. Judge Kéba Mbaye served on the IOC Executive Board. Amadou Dia Bâ brought home the silver medal in the 400-meter hurdles from Seoul in 1988, the country's only Olympic medal to date. He was chosen as one of the torchbearers.

And then there was Lamine Diack, who chaired the Senegalese Olympic Committee from 1985 to 2002.

Eight venues spread across Dakar, Diamniadio, and Saly, ministries, a city, and the IOC. Coordination was another key undertaking, managed by inter-ministerial councils and a presidential oversight council. On Saturday, July 25, 2026, the President of the Republic officially received the swimming pool and the stadium, both delivered on schedule. Diagna stated in an interview: "When President Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye receives the nation's assets, it is an act of sovereignty, providing essential infrastructure before, during, and after the Games." These Games represent a living legacy that every Senegalese citizen must embrace.

Having arrived in Dakar on September 12, the flame departed on the 14th from Dakar-Plateau for some three thousand kilometers and thirty stages, through the fourteen regions of the country.

Nearly 450 bearers passed it from hand to hand. In Saint-Louis, on October 3rd and 4th, it crossed the Senegal River by dugout canoe before heading upriver towards Matam. On October 30th, it reached the Place de la Nation. The country was ablaze, and for once, the fervor united it. It was the beginning of a brotherhood based on the values of Olympism.

Everything has been designed to ensure the Games are popular, from the screens set up in towns and villages to the volunteers who support them. More than three hundred thousand tickets are being distributed through charitable channels. The volunteer program is called Jambaar 26; Jambaar means hero in Wolof.

The country bears responsibility. These Games belong neither to a committee nor to a government. Diagna, Baïdy, Ibrahima, Babacar, and Seydina were the first to carry this torch, when it was still just a proposal. Today, they pass it on to African youth, in "respect, friendship, and excellence."

On October 31, two thousand seven hundred athletes aged fifteen to seventeen will enter the Diamniadio stadium.

No one in Senegal should be left behind.

Fatimata Diallo BA

Writer/Novelist