Kirsty Coventry: Dakar 2026 will put Africa’s Olympic potential in the global spotlight

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Kirsty Coventry believes the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympics will showcase the power of possible.

Taking place from 31 October to 13 November 2026, the Games will give aspiring athletes a global platform while offering Senegal the chance to demonstrate Africa’s ability to stage a major international sporting event. Senegal will be the host of the first Olympic sporting event ever held on African soil.

President Coventry, Africa’s most decorated Olympian, was part of the celebrations welcoming the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic flame in Senegal on Saturday (12 September).

“I hope that the athletes don’t just fulfil their ambitions, their dreams and their goals, but I hope they walk away with a greater sense of what the Olympic spirit means,” the first African IOC President told Olympics.com.

“It’s a huge opportunity for us (Africa) to show who we are and to show that openness, that friendliness, that respect, all of those values that we hold dear that are embedded into everything the Organising Committee for the Olympic Games has been doing, and I think the Youth Olympic Games will be able to deliver that.”

Dressed in an orange boubou (traditional flowing robe), the Zimbabwean joined a procession of 100 women carrying the Youth Olympic flame before witnessing the lighting of the cauldron at the Place du Souvenir.

A two-time Olympic champion, President Coventry was a teenager when she won her first medal at a major international event, winning gold in the 200 metre individual medley at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England.

She said she hoped the experience of competing at Dakar 2026 would awaken the potential and belief in the young athletes.

“If they work hard and they’re ambitious, they can achieve anything. So I just hope that they walk away believing that what they may think is impossible actually becomes possible,” she said.