Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games: Inclusive sport as a legacy, beyond the Games

The inclusion of people with disabilities is at the heart of the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games (YOG). Following the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, which helped change public perception of para-sports, several Senegalese and French institutions have decided to make inclusive sport a lasting legacy of the Dakar Games. This ambition is driven by the "Inclusive Sport as a Legacy" project, which aims to break down prejudices and make sports more accessible to everyone.

The message is now being implemented on the ground. The Île-de-France region, the department of Rufisque, the City of Dakar, the Senegalese National Paralympic Committee, the French Federation of Disabled Sports and the Special Olympics Senegal Association have joined forces to promote sports participation for people with physical and intellectual disabilities.

After a first stage organised at the Place des Cultures urbaines in Dakar yesterday, the activities continue on 3 and 4 November at the Place de la Nation, before heading to Rufisque on 5 November, at the Jardin public stadium.

During these days, young people are invited to try out several adapted sports: wheelchair basketball, blind football, etc. Demonstration matches will also add a spectacular and educational dimension to these events.

For Yoro Niang, Secretary General of the Senegalese National Paralympic Committee, this initiative represents an important opportunity to give more visibility to the Paralympic movement. "It's a great project because it allows us to exist and make ourselves known during this Olympic Games period. Our slogan is 'Fit on the field, fit in life.' Through sport, we want to develop people capable of facing the various obstacles of life," he explains.

For the project manager, the project also serves as an awareness-raising tool. It allows the public to better understand the Paralympic movement and to recognize the existence of two distinct structures: the National Olympic Committee and the National Paralympic Committee. This institutional and media recognition, he believes, contributes to building the legacy of the Youth Olympic Games.

The project also benefits from the presence of athletes from the Île-de-France region who have come to share their experience with their Senegalese counterparts and meet the young participants. Among them are Nantenin Keïta, Paralympic 400m champion, Hakim Arezki and Charly Simo, Paralympic blind football champions.