Senegal’s teenage volleyball players were training, giving everything they had.
asserted
they → train → everything
And I could see it in their eyes: the flame, that desire to win.
uncertain
I → see → eyes
I was with my daughter and could see the effect it had on her: watching another girl her age play for a team, for a chance at gold, for something bigger than herself.
uncertain
girl → see → herself
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I saw it again when my daughter helped a young boxer wrap her hands, before the fighter slipped on her gloves and threw a punch few adults could withstand, and when she helped a rowing captain into the water.
uncertain
she → arrive → water
There is an ease with which teenagers find one another, a friendliness adults seem to have forgotten.
asserted
adults → be → one
And so the 2026 Youth Olympic Games opening on the world’s youngest continent on Saturday feels fitting, particularly in this sports-crazy city I call home.
asserted
I → open → city
Looking around Dakar, almost everyone looks like an athlete.
asserted
everyone → look → athlete
Surfers paddle out at dawn.
asserted
Surfers → paddle → dawn
Children play basketball and football in the streets.
asserted
Children → play → streets
Teenagers wrestle on beaches; others swim towards Ngor Island at breakneck speed.
asserted
others → wrestle → speed
Construction workers, after a day’s labour, gather not in pubs or bars, but on the beach – to train, laugh and listen to music.
asserted
workers → gather → music
For many in Dakar, visas and money make travel beyond their borders difficult.
asserted
travel → make → borders
This time the world has come to them.
asserted
world → come → them
The Games were supposed to take place in 2022.
asserted
Games → suppose → 2022
Then came COVID-19, and Senegal’s then-president, Macky Sall, asked for more time to prepare.
asserted
president → come → time
The Olympics would have to wait four years.
asserted
Olympics → have → ?
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Kirsty Coventry, the Zimbabwean former swimmer and Olympic gold medallist who now leads the International Olympic Committee, described it as a chance for Dakar, Senegal and Africa “to actually show what we’re capable of” – not merely tell the world.
asserted
we → lead → world
Defying the odds
Senegal, meanwhile, is facing political and financial turmoil.
asserted
Senegal → defy → turmoil
Billions of dollars of previously undisclosed debt have brought repeated credit downgrades, and the government is negotiating with creditors and the International Monetary Fund.
asserted
government → bring → creditors
In a country where money is scarce, the question of what it costs to welcome the world cannot be separated from what the Games will leave behind.
asserted
Games → cost → what
Dakar can feel half built, its concrete exposed, its roads unfinished.
asserted
roads → feel → ?
Yet the city has done what it can with what it has.
asserted
it → do → what
Christmas lights have become Olympic rings; and empty water bottles painted in the colours of visiting nations line roads leading towards refurbished venues.
asserted
bottles → become → venues
I asked Coventry whether a country had to be wealthy to host an Olympic event.
asserted
country → ask → event
“No,” she replied.
asserted
she → reply → ?
The movement, she explained, needed to make the Games less complex and more affordable, using existing venues rather than demanding new ones.
asserted
Games → explain → ones
Despite Senegal’s debt and political turmoil, the land of teranga, of hospitality, is ready to welcome some 2,700 athletes and their parents, coaches and supporters.
asserted
land → welcome → athletes
Expectations are being tested, sometimes quietly, in encounters no opening ceremony could arrange.
uncertain
ceremony → test → encounters
The Olympic flame, meanwhile, has passed from hand to hand.
asserted
flame → pass → hand
Khaby Lame, the TikTok star known for making millions laugh without speaking, carried it through Dakar.
asserted
millions → know → Dakar
Then came Omar Sy, the actor who plays a thief in Lupin, running through his Senegalese father’s homeland, not like a thief but like a man who belonged, carrying something he was meant to give away.
asserted
he → come → something
Online, the jokes from locals came quickly: Would the electricity company embarrass Senegal with a power cut?
asserted
company → come → cut
Why are some business leaders so eager to hold the flame at Games meant for teenagers?
asserted
leaders → hold → teenagers
Why do adults always want to hog the limelight…?
asserted
adults → want → limelight
And increasingly, the Games are unfolding on mobile phones.
asserted
Games → unfold → phones
Athletes film themselves opening their kit, boarding planes, arriving in Dakar, sharing what they find.
asserted
they → film → what
Australia has sent 41 teenagers on a journey of more than 24 hours.
asserted
Australia → send → hours
Britain’s young coastal rowers are preparing to race.
asserted
rowers → prepare → ?
Six refugee athletes, based in Africa, are competing under a flag of their own.
asserted
athletes → base → own
Already, politics has slipped into the Games.
asserted
politics → slip → Games
…and 19 more, not listed.
The Aporia
