Madar (Dakar) - "Beyond the competitions, the Dakar Youth Olympic Games should help strengthen a sporting youth and bring about a real sport economy serving development," Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye said on Saturday, 31 October 2026, addressing the summit on sport and sustainable development in Dakar, Le Soleil reported.
He spoke in the presence of heads of state and government, the president of the International Olympic Committee and foreign delegations. Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani was among the summit's participants, as Madar reported.
Faye called for a sport policy covering school and university sport, amateur practice, elite competition, training, coaching and infrastructure financing, highlighting the facilities built or renovated for the Games. "In Senegal, we have bet on a lasting legacy of the Games, with civic-minded youth and substantial investment in the sports sector, notably infrastructure and talent development," he said.
He said the state would mobilise the nation's forces to preserve that legacy and follow up on the summit's conclusions. He deplored persistent conflicts, terrorism, human rights violations, racism and economic inequality, and called for racism in sport to be fought systematically.
Recalling Senegal's commitment to the Olympic truce and a resolution recently adopted by UNESCO's Executive Board calling for it to be observed during the Games, he said that "lasting peace and stability create the conditions for lasting investment in development".
On the sidelines of the summit, Faye received Prince Fahad Bin Jalawi Al Saud, vice-president of the Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee, for talks on cooperation between the two Olympic movements, infrastructure financing and talent development, and then met Makhtar Diop, managing director of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), on mobilising private investment for the Dakar 2026 legacy, according to the presidency as cited by Le Soleil.
