With less than 30 days to go until the start of the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games, IHF.info catches up on the latest developments from Senegal for the global sporting extravaganza which takes place from 30 October to 13 November and features beach handball.

Host nation continuing preparation for beach handball spectacular

With Senegal the only nation with teams in both the men’s and women’s beach handball competitions, their teams have been busy continuing their preparations with training camps being held, including two in Senegal and one in Laredo, Spain in addition, the Senegalese National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSS) recently held a sports festival in Saint-Louis with more than 300 young people participating in a variety of sports, including beach handball. 
 
Saly Beach, the host venue for beach handball – which concludes the Youth Olympic Games sporting programme at the popular tourist site – has also been finalising its preparations, with imagery and branding appearing, as well as the temporary facilities being put in place and major works being conducted, according to local media reports. 

To keep updated on all beach handball news coming from Dakar 2026, visit the IHF.info men’s mini-site HERE or women’s mini-site HERE.

An Olympic Games of firsts

Aside from being the first-ever Olympic Games in Africa, Dakar 2026 will be full of history-making moments under its motto: ‘Africa Welcomes, Dakar Celebrates’.

•     Dakar 2026 will be fully gender-balanced with 239 events scheduled: 11 mixed-team, 114 male and 114 female events across 25 sports featuring 1,350 male and 1,350 female athletes aged between 15 and 17, representing 207 delegations
•     It will be the first Youth Olympic Games to include the participation of a youth Refugee Olympic Team
•     The sports of baseball5 and wushu (taolu) will appear for the first time at an Olympic Games
•     Dakar 2026 will be the first Summer Youth Olympic Games without any events featuring athletes from different countries competing as one team, known as mixed National Olympic Committees (NOC) events
•     Dakar 2026 will also be the first edition of the Games to be held under the presidency of the former Zimbabwean Olympic swimming champion Kirsty Coventry
•     Coventry is the first woman to be elected President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the first African to lead the Olympic Movement

A spectacle to behold

750,000 tickets are available to allow spectators to experience the competitions and the highlights of the Games including cultural events such as concerts and fashion shows, for example. A number of these tickets are exclusively reserved for the social ticket scheme which is aimed at schools, organisations and sports clubs. 

To book tickets for Dakar 2026, visit the official Dakar 2026 ticketing platform HERE. 

You will need to create an account before selecting sessions or passes and purchase limits apply (a maximum of 16 tickets per person per session, dropping to 10 for some low-capacity sessions, and no more than 60 tickets in total per account).

Children under the age of three enter for free when accompanied by a ticket-holding adult. Spectators with disabilities qualify for a reduced rate in the most accessible seating areas, with free admission for one companion.

Olympic Flames arrives in Africa, journeys around Senegal

After the medals for Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games (YOG) were revealed last month the Games now feel closer than ever with the Olympic Flame now making its way around the West African nation.

Just two days after being lit at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, Senegal President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and First Lady Marie Khone Faye welcomed the Olympic Flame to Senegal on Saturday 12 September at the Presidential Palace in Dakar.

The arrival marked a major milestone for the continent with Dakar 2026 becoming the first Olympic sporting event on African soil with the Flame welcomed by supporters, athletes and members of the Senegalese sporting community and International Olympic Committee (IOC) President, Kirsty Coventry.

From 14 September to 30 October the Olympic Flame will travel for 46 days across all 14 regions of Senegal, taking in over 30 stages to ‘…bring the flame closer to communities across Senegal, celebrating the country’s young people, sporting talent and cultural diversity along the way.’ 

The tour is officially called the ‘Dakar 2026 Flame Tour’ with the theme of ‘Pass the Energy’.

Each torchbearer will help carry the message of Dakar 2026 and its values of friendship, solidarity and inclusion before it will be used to light the cauldron during the Opening Ceremony on 31 October at Abdoulaye Wade Stadium, which will officially mark the start of the fourth Summer Youth Olympic Games. 

“The goal is that it won't just impact the youngsters coming here, but when they go home, they'll talk about the values and the inspiration of the Games that is created within them,” said President Coventry at the welcoming ceremony.

“Here in Senegal, being able to feel it, the flame is going to go on a magnificent tour all around the country, and people are going to be asking what it is and inquiring and finding out that Senegal is going to be the host of the first-ever Olympic event in Africa.”

The Dakar 2026 torch features the official pattern, symbolising the energy of young people and the hospitality of the host country. Inspired by variations of the Olympic colours created for this landmark edition of the YOG, the pattern is an integral part of the Dakar 2026 visual identity, reflecting the image of a contemporary Africa. 

The torch relay, introduced in 1936, is one of the most iconic and eagerly anticipated moments for the public in the build-up to the official start of the competition with the Dakar 2026 torch moving to the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, following the conclusion of Dakar 2026.

‘We Run for Africa’ up and running

With the Olympic Flame arrival, the ‘We Run for Africa’ initiative has got underway, an educational and sporting initiative for those aged between 6 and 16 years of age across the continent.

Part of the Olympic Values Education Programme (OVEP), the main target of the initiative is to cover a collective 30,500 kilometres – the rough equivalent of Africa's circumference – through runs and walks with all of the continent's National Olympic Committees (NOCs) invited to take part.

The initiative also includes educational workshops where the youth can learn more about the Olympic values of excellence, respect and friendship with more than 40 National Olympic Committees in Africa and more than 20 Olympafrica centres involved.

6,000 volunteers recruited

Any major sporting event, not least an Olympic Games requires the skills and hard work of volunteers and Dakar 2026 is no different.

Under their ‘Jambaar26’ volunteer programme more than 6,000 volunteers aged 18-79 years old will support the organisation of the 2026 Youth Olympic Games.

The volunteers come from Senegal and 90 other countries and were recruited from the period 1 December 2025 to 22 May 2026. 

5,233 of the volunteers are from Senegal, adding to a total of 92.7% of volunteers coming from the African continent. Europe has provided 5.2%, Asia and the Americas 1% each and Oceania 0.1%. Men and women are almost split equality, with women at 45% and men at 55%.

Earlier this month, 200 of the volunteers who have been assigned to Games Event Services (EVS) completed an Olympic values and leadership course at the Captain Mbaye Diagne Tactical Training Centre in Thiès.

The course was organised by the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee, in partnership with the United Nations system, UN Women and the Armed Forces General Staff, the training is designed to familiarise future volunteers with the demands of an international sporting event. 

‘Jambaar’ is a Wolof word, the most widely spoken language in Senegal which means ‘hero’ and is often used to describe people who set an example.

In addition to the volunteers, the ‘Learning Academy’ initiative has been launched which is a programme dedicated to training more than 400 young people aged between 21 and 35, who will subsequently join the staff of the Dakar 2026 YOG Organising Committee. 

The Learning Academy is aimed at empowering young people and enabled participants to make their mark on history by playing an active part in organising the first African Olympic event.

Beach Handball at the Youth Olympic Games

The 2026 Youth Olympic Games (YOG) will be held in Dakar, Senegal from 31 October to 13 November 2026 and will feature 25 sports in the official competition programme, which includes beach handball.

Qualification for the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games was based on a set of principles agreed by the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), plus a precondition for teams to participate at the 2025 IHF Men's and Women's Youth (U17) Beach Handball World Championships, which took place in Hammamet, Tunisia in 2025.

National Olympic Committees (NOC’s) have to select their athletes (‘Sport Entries’) by September 2026.

Spain’s IHF Women’s Beach Handball World Championship winner, María Asunción Batista Portero – known in the handball world as Asun Batista – was announced as an ‘Athlete Role Model’ (ARM) for Dakar 2026 back in April.

Dakar 2026 will be the fourth edition of the YOG, following its debut in Singapore (2010), the second edition in Nanjing, China (2014) and 2018 edition, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Indoor/7-a-side handball featured at the 2010 and 2014 editions, before being replaced by Beach Handball at the 2018 edition, the debut event won by Argentina (women) and Spain (men).

The YOG is a major event which embodies the Olympic spirit, sporting excellence and the promotion of youth. The event has become a pillar of the Olympic Movement and is more than just sporting competitions. 

The YOG are part of an educational and cultural programme aimed at instilling the Olympic values of respect, friendship and excellence in young people around the world.

The election of Dakar as the host city of the YOG 2026 marks a historic moment for Africa. The decision was taken at the 133rd IOC Session in October 2018, making Dakar the first African city to host the YOG.

Initially planned for 2022, Dakar was postponed to 2026 due to the Covid-19 pandemic which has allowed for better planning of the event and ensured its success.

Photo credit: Olympics