| Host City: | Dakar, Senegal |
| Motto: | Africa welcomes, Dakar celebrates (French: L'Afrique acceuille, Dakar célèbre) (Wolof: Afrig dalal, Ndakaaru jëmël) |
| Athletes: | ~4564 |
| Events: | 247 in 36 sports |
| Opening: | 31 October 2026 |
| Closing: | 13 November 2026 |
| Opened By: | President Bassirou Diomaye Faye (expected) |
| Stadium: | Diamniadio Olympic Stadium |
| Summer Prev: | Buenos Aires 2018 |
| Summer Next: | 2030 |
| Winter Prev: | Gangwon 2024 |
| Winter Next: | 2028 |
The 2026 Summer Youth Olympics (French: Jeux Olympiques de la jeunesse d'été de 2026), officially known as the IV Summer Youth Olympic Games and commonly known as Dakar 2026 (Wolof: Ndakaaru 2026), will be the fourth edition of the Summer Youth Olympics, an international sports, education and cultural festival for teenagers, in a city designated by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Originally scheduled to be held for 18 days in Dakar, Senegal, from 22 October to 9 November 2022, it is now scheduled to be held there for 13 days—from 31 October to 13 November 2026,[1] becoming the first IOC event to be held in Africa.
On 9 December 2014 at the 127th IOC Session it was decided to move the organisation of the YOG to a non-Olympic year, starting with the fourth Summer Youth Olympic Games, to be postponed from 2022 to 2023.[2] Subsequently, the IOC reverted to a 2022 date, and announced in February 2018 that they would be recommending that the event be held in Africa.[3] The 132nd IOC Session confirmed the change of date back to 2022 on 7 February 2018.[4] The host was announced at the 133rd IOC Session in Buenos Aires, Argentina during the 2018 edition.[5] However, on 15 July 2020, the IOC and Senegalese government agreed to postpone the games to 2026 due to the operational and economical consequences of the postponement of the 2020 Summer Olympics to July 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[6] [7]
See main article: Bids for the 2022 Summer Youth Olympics.
The IOC voted to select the host city of the 2022 Summer Youth Olympics on 8 October 2018 at the 133rd IOC Session in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Senegal proposes to organize the 2026 Summer Youth Olympics in three distinct areas, Dakar, Diamniadio and Saly.[8] [9]
The city of Saly will host water sports, beach sports and golf.
The 2026 Summer Youth Olympics will feature 247 events in 36 sports. Breaking, skateboarding, sport climbing, surfing and karate will join the 28 core sports. There will be no mixed team events (NOCs) for the first time, 1 open event (Equestrian), 115 men's events, and 115 women's events.[10] [11] Baseball5 and wushu were subsequently added as optional sports.[12]
In June 2024, the IOC Executive Board approved a new sports program proposed by the IOC’s Olympic Programme Commission to better fit it into the local context. An amendment to the program kept 25 of the original 35 sports in the competition program and moved 10 sports to the engagement program. The change also limits each sport to one discipline only, reducing the overall number of athletes while ensuring gender parity, with Petanque making its Youth Olympic debut after being featured as a demonstration sport in 2018 and the second multi-sport event to do so after the SEA Games in 2001.[13]