SA men get Canada, Germany and Senegal in Sevens

Rugby sevens will return to the Youth Olympic Games for the third time when some of the world’s most promising young players take to the field at Dakar 2026.

The Opening Ceremony is on 31 October and the rugby tournament kicks off at the 8,000-seat Complexe Iba Mar Diop the following day, with medals awarded on 2 and 3 November. Dakar 2026 will make history as the first Olympic sporting event to be staged on the African continent. Around 2700 young athletes are expected to compete across 25 competition sports.

Eight men’s and eight women’s rugby sevens teams have qualified for Dakar 2026, with the competitions featuring two pools of four teams.

In the men’s competition, South Africa, Canada, Germany and Senegal are in Pool A, while Argentina, France, Japan and Samoa make up Pool B.

Dakar 2026 will be the first Youth Olympic Games to benefit from the IOC’s evolved approach to the YOG sports programme, designed to better fit the local context.

The 25 competition sports are athletics (track and field), aquatics (swimming), archery, badminton, baseball (baseball5), basketball (3×3), boxing, breaking, cycling (road cycling), equestrian (jumping), fencing, football (futsal), gymnastics (artistic gymnastics), handball (beach handball), judo, rowing (coastal rowing), rugby (rugby sevens), sailing, skateboarding (street), table tennis, taekwondo, triathlon, volleyball (beach volleyball), wrestling (beach wrestling) and wushu.