Under the euphoria of the Africa Cup of Football conquest, Senegal inaugurates its great Olympic Stadium for the Dakar 2026 Games

Olympic organizers have gained an unexpected ally in the preparations for the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games: Senegal’s historic victory in the recent Africa Cup of Nations soccer tournament.

The popular impact of that victory could be embraced by the national and international Olympic leadership as the first initiative for sports development in Senegal.

Behind a ball, interest in other Olympic sports could be awakened. The African nation needs to boost this multidisciplinary attraction to present the best possible teams in Dakar 2026 and beyond.

The inauguration next Tuesday, February 22, of Senegal’s impressive Olympic Stadium, the “jewel” of the Youth Olympic Games, will take place under the echoes of the triumphant triumph of captain Sadio Mané's team, a world Senegalese star,

For the occasion, the president of the republic, Macky Sall, will be surrounded by several African heads of state, as well as FIFA president and IOC member Gianni Infantino.

This English-style stadium without an athletics track, 26 kilometers from Dakar, will seat 50,000 spectators and is already one of the “Top Ten” stadiums of its kind in Africa.

In a few weeks’ time, the stadium’s capacity will be “bursting at the seams”: on March 28, Senegal will play Egypt in their qualifier for the World Cup in Qatar. Both were the protagonists of the final of the recent Africa Cup, a spectacular match that after a 0-0 draw was won by Senegal in a series of penalties, 4-2.

The organizers should insist in the run-up to this crucial series that either team can win and that the charm of Senegal’s triumph in Yaoundé, Cameroon, host of the African Cup, is not at stake.

Just this Thursday, the Africa Cup of Nations trophy began its tour around the country at the headquarters of the National Olympic and Sports Committee of Senegal (CNOSS) in the center of the capital. It was handed over to its president, Mamadou Ndiagna Ndiaye, also president of the Dakar 2026 Organizing Committee.

In an emotional gesture, the president of the National Football Federation, Me Augustin Senghor, acknowledged that it was thanks to the support of the Olympic Committee that Senegal won the cup.

A total of 28 sports will be on the Dakar 2026 program, plus seven additional sports proposed by the hosts: baseball 5, breakdance, karate, skateboarding, sport climbing, surfing and wushu. The Games will be held in three venues, Dakar, Diamniadio (site of the new stadium) and Saly.

As confirmed at the first part of the 139th IOC Session in Beijing, the Games schedule is moving ahead smoothly, a scenario made easier when the event was postponed from 2022 to 2026 because of the global pandemic. Two days after the IOC Session, on February 6, Senegal’s historic soccer conquest came to fruition, an unexpected catalyst in the incipient Olympic atmosphere.

Apart from the success of the Africa Cup, the Senegalese had already prepared an extensive sports and cultural program for children and young people starting in March, which would culminate on the date on which the postponed Games were to be held.

According to the president of the IOC Coordination Commission for these Games, Kirsty Coventry, the new calendar offers unprecedented opportunities for Senegal and Africa. And she did not imagine what would happen in Yaoundé.