Dakar (AFP) - The 2026 Youth Olympic Games, the first Olympics ever to be held on African soil, opened Saturday in the Senegalese capital marking an historic moment for the continent.

“I declare open the fourth Summer Youth Olympic Games in Dakar,” announced Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye at the Abdoulaye Wade stadium in Diamniadio, a nearby suburb of Dakar.

Signs proclaiming “Africa welcomes, Dakar celebrates” are omnipresent across Dakar, which is hosting nearly 2,700 young competitors aged 14 to 17 from around the world.

The event will see the return of Russian athletes to the Olympics and also includes a refugee team. Overall, the young athletes will compete across 25 sports and 153 medal events.

“Today it’s not just a nation that is welcoming the Youth Olympic Games, it’s an entire continent that is opening its arms,” Faye told a sport and development summit earlier Saturday ahead of the Games’ opening ceremony.

The Games will not only celebrate champions but also “our collective capacity to transform sport into an economic and social engine”, he said, emphasizing that 130 years of Olympic history had passed before the Olympic flame ever landed on African soil.

Events ranging from athletics to beach wrestling, rugby sevens to breaking, will be held across eight venues in three locations.

Dakar, Diamniadio and the beach town of Saly located some 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the capital, will all host events.

“For years, we have talked about this moment. The first Olympic sporting event on African soil,” International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Kirsty Coventry, a former Zimbabwean swimmer, said in her opening address.

“And now – here we are! This historic moment is for Senegal and for Africa. And for our entire Olympic Movement.”

Coventry added: “This is the Africa that I am so proud and so excited for the world to experience.

“It makes me incredibly proud to be standing here tonight. A proud Zimbabwean. And proud to be an African woman. And so proud that our continent is welcoming the Olympic Movement for the very first time.”

According to Coventry, the opening ceremony was televised live in more than 30 countries, with every African nation having committed to showing the Games live.

- Sports culture -

A total of 136 Senegalese athletes will participate in the Youth Olympics, with some 6,000 volunteers from Senegal helping put on the event.

The west African nation is renowned for its sports culture, including its football team, traditional wrestling and surf scene.

Football enthusiasts and young people often organise impromptu matches in the evenings or weekends on the beach or in village squares.

And as the day cools, hundreds of people flock to Dakar’s iconic coastal road, the Corniche, to run, do strength training or take part in group exercise.

While a sense of excitement is beginning to stir in the capital, the fourth summer edition of the Youth Olympics have struggled to stoke wild enthusiasm across Senegal.

Many are more concerned with the high cost of living, unemployment and economic hardship.

“Once the Youth Olympic Games in Senegal begin, Dakar will become the capital of African youth,” Senegal Prime Minister Ahmadou Al Aminou Lo said in an interview with AFP this week.

“Africa hosting the (Youth) Olympic Games, it’s a symbol”, he said.

- Russian athletes -

With the IOC effectively lifting the Russian Olympic Committee’s (ROC) suspension in July, the Youth Games will mark the first Olympic competition since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 in which Russian athletes are allowed to compete under their own flag and colours.

According to the ROC, 13 Russian athletes will participate and 10 coaches will accompany them to Senegal.

However, it is up to each sport’s international federation whether to authorise the Russian athletes’ participation.

The Dakar Youth Games will also welcome a refugee Olympic team, composed primarily of athletes based in Africa.

The IOC has called the Dakar Games an important milestone for the continent and an opportunity to showcase Senegal’s cultural richness and Africa’s growing role within the Olympics.

South Africa could potentially become the first African nation to host the Olympic Games, having already paved the way by hosting the men’s FIFA World Cup in 2010. The country is officially in the running for the 2036 Summer Olympics.