Dakar Youth Olympics: Who gets to hold the flame?

Dakar, Senegal – Senegal’s teenage volleyball players were training, giving everything they had. And I could see it in their eyes: the flame, that desire to win.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.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Olympic flame arrives in Senegal for first ever Olympic event in Africalist 2 of 3The return of Palestinian football: ‘We are a people who must live’list 3 of 3South Africa centre bid in Durban for first Olympic Games on the continentend of listI 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.There is an ease with which teenagers find one another, a friendliness adults seem to have forgotten.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.Looking around Dakar, almost everyone looks like an athlete.Surfers paddle out at dawn. Children play basketball and ...