Senegal will host the next edition of the Summer Youth Olympic Games in 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
It will be the first African nation to host the event.
Senegal President Macky Sall was present on Monday to see International Olympic Committee members confirm the executive board’s preference from four candidates.
Four other African countries – Botswana, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia – were in the running to host the event, but Senegal was chosen as it provided the “best value proposition and the greatest opportunities at this moment in time”, the IOC said in a press release.
The competition will be held in three cities: Senegal’s capital Dakar, the new city of Diamniadio, which currently under development, and Saly on the coast.
“Senegal and its young people are proud of the honour you have bestowed upon us, in entrusting the organisation of the Youth Olympic Games 2022 to our country,” Senegal’s President Macky Sall said in a statement.
“In fact, it is the whole of Africa, the birthplace of humankind through its history and the youngest continent through its demographics, which will welcome the young athletes of the world in 2022.”
Apart from Antarctica, Africa is the only continent in the world to have never hosted the Olympic Games.