The 4th Summer Youth Olympic Games (YOG) will take place over two weeks from 31 October 2026 in Dakar, Senegal, bringing together the world’s best young athletes for the first Olympic sporting event to be held on African soil.
The Games will be held across three host sites (Dakar, Diamniadio and Saly), and are intended as a catalyst to transform Senegal through sport, while becoming a blueprint for future YOG hosts.
Dakar 2026 is born out of the desire to take the Youth Olympic Games to all parts of the world and to put the Games at the heart of Africa’s transformation. Senegal’s sporting culture and practice are rooted in its history and population, especially young people. These Games seek to be synonymous with symbiosis, exchange, joy and pride, but also humility, for young people worldwide, in Africa and in Senegal. Sport is meant to be a celebration and a way of living together, a vector for peace, rapprochement and social cohesion.
This approach is embodied in the new motto for the Games, “Africa welcomes, Dakar celebrates”, which seeks to express how the young people of Africa are ready to welcome the world’s youth to collaboratively shape the ambitions of their shared future during the Games.
