Dakar Youth Olympics: Who gets to hold the flame?

Senegal makes history by becoming the first African country to host an Olympic event.

A man runs past a mural of Dakar 2026 as Senegal prepares to host the Youth Olympic Games, the first Olympic event to be held in Africa, in Dakar [Misper Apawu/Reuters]

Dakar, Senegal – Senegal’s teenage volleyball players were training, giving everything they had. And I could see it in their eyes: the flame, that desire to win.

I was with my daughter and could see the effect it had on her: watching another girl her age play for a team, for a chance at gold, for something bigger than herself.

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I saw it again when my daughter helped a young boxer wrap her hands, before the fighter slipped on her gloves and threw a punch few adults could withstand, and when she helped a rowing captain into the water.

There is an ease with which teenagers find one another, a friendliness adults seem to have forgotten.

And so the 2026 Youth Olympic Games opening on the world’s youngest continent on Saturday feels fitting, particularly in this sports-crazy city I call home.

Looking around Dakar, almost everyone looks like an athlete.

Surfers paddle out at dawn. Children play basketball and football in the streets. Teenagers wrestle on beaches; others swim towards Ngor Island at breakneck speed. Construction workers, after a day’s labour, gather not in pubs or bars, but on the beach – to train, laugh and listen to music.

Sport is a way of life, but also a reason to be together.

For many in Dakar, visas and money make travel beyond their borders difficult. This time the world has come to them.

The Games were supposed to take place in 2022. Then came COVID-19, and Senegal’s then-president, Macky Sall, asked for more time to prepare . The Olympics would have to wait four years.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Kirsty Coventry, the Zimbabwean former swimmer and Olympic gold medallist who now leads the International Olympic Committee, described it as a chance for Dakar, Senegal and Africa “to actually show what we’re capable of” – not merely tell the world.

Senegal, meanwhile, is facing political and financial turmoil .

Billions of dollars of previously undisclosed debt have brought repeated credit downgrades, and the government is negotiating with creditors and the International Monetary Fund.

In a country where money is scarce, the question of what it costs to welcome the world cannot be separated from what the Games will leave behind.

Dakar can feel half built, its concrete exposed, its roads unfinished. Yet the city has done what it can with what it has. Christmas lights have become Olympic rings; and empty water bottles painted in the colours of visiting nations line roads leading towards refurbished venues.

I asked Coventry whether a country had to be wealthy to host an Olympic event.

“No,” she replied. The movement, she explained, needed to make the Games less complex and more affordable, using existing venues rather than demanding new ones.

Senegal’s influencer and TikToker Khaby Lame carries the Youth Olympic Flame on the eve of the opening ceremony of the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar on October 30, 2026 [AFP]

Despite Senegal’s debt and political turmoil, the land of teranga, of hospitality, is ready to welcome some 2,700 athletes and their parents, coaches and supporters. Some have never been to Africa. Expectations are being tested, sometimes quietly, in encounters no opening ceremony could arrange.

The Olympic flame , meanwhile, has passed from hand to hand. Khaby Lame, the TikTok star known for making millions laugh without speaking, carried it through Dakar. Then came Omar Sy, the actor who plays a thief in Lupin, running through his Senegalese father’s homeland, not like a thief but like a man who belonged, carrying something he was meant to give away.

Online, the jokes from locals came quickly: Would the electricity company embarrass Senegal with a power cut? Why are some business leaders so eager to hold the flame at Games meant for teenagers? Why do adults always want to hog the limelight…?

And increasingly, the Games are unfolding on mobile phones. Athletes film themselves opening their kit, boarding planes, arriving in Dakar, sharing what they find.

Australia has sent 41 teenagers on a journey of more than 24 hours. Britain’s young coastal rowers are preparing to race. Six refugee athletes, based in Africa, are competing under a flag of their own. These teenagers are their own broadcasters, their own brands.

Already, politics has slipped into the Games. Ukraine’s public broadcaster has refused to show the ceremonies because Russian and Belarusian teenagers will compete under their national flags.

The values Coventry spoke of – friendship, excellence, respect and the ideal of neutrality – are harder for adults to practise than to pronounce.

But politics has long accompanied the Games.

Jesse Owens won four gold medals in Hitler’s Berlin in 1936, the year the modern torch relay began. In 1968, Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised black-gloved fists on the podium in Mexico City, protesting racial injustice and poverty.

Pierre de Coubertin, the French founder of the modern Olympic movement, once spoke of sport’s “conquest” of Africa. In Paris in 1900, Haitian-born rugby player Constantin Henriquez became the first known Black Olympic gold medallist.

Extending gloved hands skyward in racial protest, US athletes Tommie Smith, centre, and John Carlos stare downward after Smith received the gold and Carlos the bronze in Mexico City in 1968 [File: AP]

It took more than a hundred years for the flame to come to Africa.

In 2004, Egyptian judoka Mohamed Rashwan carried the flame through Cairo on its first visit to the continent.

But competitive sport did not begin in Greece. Ancient Egyptian tomb paintings show wrestlers locked together centuries before the first recorded Games at Olympia. And Dakar had hosted its own Friendship Games in 1963, helping lay the groundwork for the All-Africa Games.

This is more than a sporting moment, especially for teenagers. Across the world, young people are protesting, hoping to be heard, to be seen, not to be ignored.

Coventry told me they want “genuine and authentic engagement”, not just the appearance of being heard. I thought of the girls training, and how little it took for my daughter to feel part of their world.

When these Games end, the visitors will go. The cauldron will go dark. Dakar will still be unfinished.

The torch will leave. But the flame I saw in those teenagers, and in my daughter, will remain.

塞内加尔创造历史，成为第一个举办奥运赛事的非洲国家。

在塞内加尔首都达喀尔，一名男子跑过一幅描绘达喀尔 2026 年青年奥林匹克运动会的壁画。达喀尔是首次在非洲举办的奥运会。[Misper Apawu/路透社]

塞内加尔达喀尔——塞内加尔的青少年排球运动员们正在训练，他们竭尽全力。我能从他们的眼神中看到：那团火焰，那份对胜利的渴望。

我和女儿在一起，我能感受到这件事对她的影响：看着另一个和她同龄的女孩为一支队伍而战，为了赢得金牌，为了比她自己更伟大的目标而战。

（共3条） 奥运圣火抵达塞内加尔，开启非洲奥运圣火之旅 非洲首次举办奥运赛事 （第1条）

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南非申办德班奥运会中心名单之三（共三份），该中心将首次申办非洲大陆的奥运会。

我女儿帮助一位年轻的拳击手缠好绷带，然后这位拳击手戴上手套，打出一记成年人都难以承受的重拳，之后我又一次看到了这一点；还有一次，她帮助一位赛艇队长下水。

青少年之间很容易就能找到彼此，这种友善似乎是成年人已经遗忘的。

因此，2026 年青年奥林匹克运动会将于周六在世界上最年轻的大陆开幕，这感觉非常合适，尤其是在我称之为家乡的这座热爱体育的城市。

环顾达喀尔，几乎每个人看起来都像运动员。

冲浪者黎明即起航。孩子们在街头打篮球、踢足球。青少年在沙滩上摔跤；还有一些人以惊人的速度游向恩戈岛。建筑工人们结束一天的劳作后，不是聚集在酒吧或酒馆，而是聚集在海滩上——训练、欢笑、听音乐。

运动是一种生活方式，也是人们相聚的理由。

对达喀尔的许多人来说，签证和资金问题使得出国旅行困难重重。而这一次，世界来到了他们身边。

奥运会原定于2022年举行。但随后新冠疫情爆发，时任塞内加尔总统马基·萨勒要求更多时间进行筹备。奥运会因此不得不推迟四年。

在接受半岛电视台采访时，现任国际奥委会主席、津巴布韦前游泳运动员、奥运会金牌得主柯丝蒂·考文垂表示，这对达喀尔、塞内加尔和非洲来说是一个“真正展现我们能力”的机会，而不仅仅是告诉世界。

与此同时，塞内加尔正面临政治和金融动荡。

数十亿美元的先前未披露债务导致信用评级一再下调，政府正在与债权人和国际货币基金组织进行谈判。

在一个资金匮乏的国家，迎接世界需要付出多少代价，与奥运会将留下什么，是密不可分的。

达喀尔给人的感觉像是只建成了一半，裸露的混凝土，未完工的道路。然而，这座城市已经尽其所能，利用了现有的资源。圣诞彩灯变成了奥运五环；涂成参赛国颜色的空水瓶沿着通往翻新场馆的道路排列。

我问考文垂，一个国家是否必须富裕才能举办奥运会。

“不，”她回答道。她解释说，这项运动需要简化奥运会的筹备工作，降低成本，利用现有场馆而不是要求新建场馆。

2026年10月30日，塞内加尔网红兼TikTok网红Khaby Lame在达喀尔青年奥林匹克运动会开幕式前夕传递青年奥林匹克圣火。[法新社]

尽管塞内加尔负债累累，政局动荡，但这片以热情好客著称的土地，已准备好迎接约2700名运动员及其家长、教练和支持者。其中一些人从未踏足非洲。人们的期待正在经受考验，有时悄无声息，而这些考验是任何开幕式都无法安排的。

与此同时，奥运圣火在众人手中传递。以不说话就能逗乐数百万人的TikTok明星卡比·拉梅（Khaby Lame）在达喀尔传递了圣火。随后，在电影《鲁邦三世》中饰演盗贼的演员奥马尔·希（Omar Sy）奔跑在他父亲的塞内加尔故乡，他不再像个盗贼，而像个真正属于这片土地的人，肩负着他注定要奉献的使命。

网络上，当地人的玩笑很快就出现了：电力公司会不会因为停电而让塞内加尔丢脸？为什么有些商界领袖如此热衷于在青少年运动会上持有圣火？为什么成年人总是想独占风头……？

而且，越来越多的奥运会赛事都在手机上进行。运动员们拍摄自己打开装备、登机、抵达达喀尔的画面，并分享他们的所见所闻。

澳大利亚派出41名青少年踏上超过24小时的旅程。英国的年轻沿海赛艇运动员正在备战比赛。六名身处非洲的难民运动员将代表自己的国家参赛。这些青少年既是自己的媒体，也是自己的品牌。

政治已经渗透到奥运会中。乌克兰公共广播公司拒绝转播开幕式，因为俄罗斯和白俄罗斯的青少年将代表各自国家参赛。

考文垂所倡导的价值观——友谊、卓越、尊重和中立的理想——对成年人来说，实践起来比说起来更难。

但政治一直伴随着奥运会。

1936年，现代火炬传递活动开始，杰西·欧文斯在希特勒统治下的柏林赢得了四枚金牌。1968年，汤米·史密斯和约翰·卡洛斯在墨西哥城领奖台上举起戴着黑色手套的拳头，抗议种族不公和贫困。

现代奥林匹克运动的法国创始人皮埃尔·德·顾拜旦曾谈到体育对非洲的“征服”。1900年在巴黎，出生于海地的橄榄球运动员康斯坦丁·恩里克斯成为已知的第一位黑人奥运金牌得主。

1968 年墨西哥城奥运会上，美国运动员汤米·史密斯（中）和约翰·卡洛斯戴着手套，举起双手向天抗议种族歧视，史密斯获得金牌，卡洛斯获得铜牌后，两人目光向下凝视。[图片：美联社]

圣火用了一百多年才传到非洲。

2004 年，埃及柔道运动员穆罕默德·拉什万在圣火首次登陆非洲大陆时，将圣火带到了开罗。

但竞技体育并非起源于希腊。古埃及墓室壁画显示，早在奥林匹亚首次有记载的运动会举办数个世纪之前，摔跤手们就已经并肩作战。而达喀尔曾在1963年举办过友谊运动会，为全非运动会的举办奠定了基础。

这不仅仅是一场体育赛事，尤其对青少年而言更是如此。世界各地的年轻人都在抗议，他们希望自己的声音被听到，被看到，而不是被忽视。

考文垂告诉我，他们想要的是“真诚的、发自内心的参与”，而不仅仅是表面上的声音。我想起了那些女孩们的训练，以及我的女儿是如何很快地融入她们的世界的。

当这届奥运会结束，游客们将离去。圣火台将熄灭。达喀尔拉力赛仍将未竟。

火炬终将熄灭，但我从那些青少年身上，以及我的女儿身上看到的火焰，将永存。