Dakar 2026: the Senegalese athletes to watch, and their first results

Senegal had never entered more than nine athletes at an Olympic Games. For its home Youth Olympics, from 31 October to 13 November, it fields 136, 69 girls and 67 boys, in 23 of the 25 sports on the programme. The International Olympic Committee had granted it 139 places. The team sports, rugby sevens, futsal and beach handball, account for almost half the squad. At the other end, coastal rowing and equestrian have one representative each.

Two 17-year-old flag bearers

Ndeye Khady Anna Diatta and Ibrahima Beye carried the flag on Saturday night at the Abdoulaye Wade Stadium. Diatta discovered wrestling in Cap Skirring, in Casamance, watching girls train on the sand, before joining the Dakar training camps from her first year of secondary school, where she was “the youngest in the team”, she said. Her aim is “the gold medal”. Her event, beach wrestling, takes place on 7 and 8 November in Saly.

Beye, a taekwondo fighter, spoke of his “great pride” at receiving the flag from the head of state, and of his ambition to reach the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics. Taekwondo runs from 8 to 12 November at the Iba Mar Diop complex.

The individual hopes

Several athletes are identified by the organisers as podium contenders. Fencer Abdourahmane Marieme Sy, 17, a left-hander with team medals from the African junior championships, carried the flame inside the stadium on Saturday night. “I have only one goal: to leave Dakar with a medal,” he said. Fencing starts on 8 November.

In swimming, Nael Lamine Voisin, a four-time winner at the 2025 African Zone II championships, competes from Sunday at the Tour de l’Oeuf complex. His mother, Nafi Toure, fenced for Senegal at Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008. In 3x3 basketball, from 6 November, forward Nene Sira Diallo, 17, arrives from the under-18 AfroBasket in Abidjan. In equestrian, Eden Kazoum, 14, is the first Senegalese rider to earn the international federation’s certificate of capability, a condition for the country’s entry in the discipline. In women’s futsal, Mareme Niang, who stood out at the Dakar en Jeux festival in 2025, plays Fiji on Sunday.

What the delegation was told before the Games

At the flag ceremony on 26 October, President Bassirou Diomaye Faye asked the athletes for discipline: “Discipline is played out far from the spotlight, at bedtime, in respecting your coaches’ instructions.” Mamadou Diagna Ndiaye, president of the organising committee, urged them to respect their opponents. Several squads prepared at camps in China, the wrestlers in Besançon, France. Amadou Dia Ba, the country’s only Olympic medallist, called on the public to support the team.

First scorecard: two wins, three defeats

In baseball5, Senegal lost their first two group matches, 0-2 to Chinese Taipei on Friday and 0-2 to Cuba on Saturday. “We were here to learn,” head coach Arona Sy Diedhiou said. In table tennis, Amador Ferrer and Marieme Diallo lost 3-0 in the mixed doubles to Egypt. In beach volleyball, both Senegalese pairs won their opening pool match in Saly, 2-0 against Cabo Verde for the girls and 2-0 against Palau for the boys.

On Sunday 1 November, Team Senegal is in action in beach volleyball (9.20am), table tennis (singles from 9.30am), rugby sevens against South Africa (10.52am), badminton, baseball5 against Türkiye (4.30pm) and women’s futsal against Fiji (5.30pm), all times GMT. These opening pool matches say nothing yet about podiums, most of which will be decided in the second week.