Flame lit in Athens for Africa's first ever Olympic event, Youth Games in Dakar

Dakar 2026 Organizing Committee president Mamadou Diagna Ndiaye, left, and Hellenic Olympic Committee president Isidoros Kouvelos, hold the Olympic torch during the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games flame handover ceremony at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, Greece, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

ATHENS, Greece — The flame for the Dakar Youth Olympics was lit in Athens on Thursday for the first Olympic competition ever staged in Africa.

International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry, the organization’s first African and first female leader, said the moment carried profound personal meaning.

“As an African, this moment means so much to me,” Coventry, an Olympic swimming champion from Zimbabwe, said, her voice breaking with emotion.

“For so many years we have spoken about the day when an Olympic event would finally come to our continent,” she said. “And now we have that great honor.”

Sun’s rays light the flame

With a nod to Apollo, the ancient Greek god of truth, healing and the sun, the flame was kindled using a concave mirror that channels the sun’s rays.

The hourlong ceremony was at the Panathenaic Stadium, the venue of the first modern Olympics in 1896.

The Youth Games from Oct. 31-Nov. 13 bring together some 2,700 athletes aged 15-18 in 25 sports in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, and two other cities.

Dakar organizing head Mamadou Diagna Ndiaye offered assurances the Games would be a success.

“We do not promise the perfect games. We promise real games, warm games,” he said.

Thursday’s ceremony featured hip-hop dancers, cheerleaders, a youth choir and a performance by Senegalese singer Kya Loum. The flame was lit after dancers performed as ancient Greek high priestesses.

Runners then carried the torch and an olive branch through the stadium, built entirely of white marble in the shape of a horseshoe and recently given a deep clean and a new blue-and-white track.

Isidoros Kouvelos, president of the Hellenic Olympic Committee, said the day was dedicated to young people.

“This ceremony belongs above all to you: To your dreams, your courage, to the early mornings, the long training sessions, the sacrifices, and the hope,” Kouvelos said. “Sport will teach you many lessons. It will teach you patience and respect. And if you listen carefully, it will teach you something greater: That the true measure of an athlete is the character formed along the way.”

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Derek Gatopoulos and Petros Giannakouris, The Associated Press