{"id":2000131027,"date":"2026-11-01T08:04:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T06:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/?p=2000131027"},"modified":"2026-11-01T17:21:35","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T15:21:35","slug":"kagame-joins-faye-to-open-dakar-2026-youth-olympic-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/kagame-joins-faye-to-open-dakar-2026-youth-olympic-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Kagame joins Faye to open Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The ceremony, held at Abdoulaye Wade Stadium, marked the start of the first International Olympic Committee (IOC)-organised event to be hosted on African soil, bringing together approximately 2,700 young athletes aged 15 to 17 from around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The athletes are competing across 25 sports, with 153 medal events scheduled during the Games, which run until November 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Office of the President confirmed Kagame\u2019s participation in a statement shared on social media, noting that the President attended the ceremony alongside his host and other Heads of State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Youth Olympic Games bring together young athletes to compete while promoting the Olympic values of excellence, friendship, respect and solidarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rwanda is represented by nine athletes competing in five disciplines: athletics, swimming, cycling, taekwondo and kung fu wushu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The competitions are taking place across three locations in Senegal: Dakar, Diamniadio and Saly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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President Paul Kagame joined his Senegalese counterpart, President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, and other African leaders at the opening ceremony of the 2026 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar on Saturday evening, October 31.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The ceremony, held at Abdoulaye Wade Stadium, marked the start of the first Olympic event to be hosted on African soil, bringing together approximately 2,700 young athletes aged 15 to 17 from around the world.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Paul Kagame joined his Senegalese counterpart, President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, and other African leaders at the opening ceremony of the 2026 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar on Saturday evening, October 31.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000131031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"archived_slugs":[],"footnotes":"","igh_game_id":0},"categories":[6],"tags":[151,69],"byline":[192],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-2000131027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-editors-choice","tag-homehighlights","byline-wycliffe-nyamasege"],"bylines":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":2000122456,"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-08-14-at-11.58.47-AM.jpeg","title":"WhatsApp Image 2026-08-14 at 11.58.47 AM","mime_type":"image\/jpeg"},"user_id":131,"twitter_handle":""}],"contributors":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":2000122456,"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-08-14-at-11.58.47-AM.jpeg","title":"WhatsApp Image 2026-08-14 at 11.58.47 AM","mime_type":"image\/jpeg"},"user_id":131,"twitter_handle":""}],"featured_image":{"id":2000131031,"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/11\/HV_0cipWQAAb7Qe.jpeg","alt":"Kagame joins Faye to open Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":2048,"height":1403,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/11\/HV_0cipWQAAb7Qe-150x150.jpeg","width":150,"height":150},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/11\/HV_0cipWQAAb7Qe-300x206.jpeg","width":300,"height":206},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/11\/HV_0cipWQAAb7Qe-768x526.jpeg","width":768,"height":526},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/11\/HV_0cipWQAAb7Qe-1024x702.jpeg","width":1024,"height":702},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/11\/HV_0cipWQAAb7Qe.jpeg","width":2048,"height":1403}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000131027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2000131027"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000131027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2000131034,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000131027\/revisions\/2000131034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000131031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2000131027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2000131027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2000131027"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=2000131027"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=2000131027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}