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At the 1988 Seoul summer Games, Amadou Dia Ba won silver in the men's 400 metres hurdles, Senegal's only ever Olympic medal.
Nearly four decades later, the west African nation is hosting Africa's first ever Olympics event, the 2026 Youth Games. The Games, Ba told AFP, mark an Olympic success for the continent and Senegal, even if medals have historically remained elusive.
AFP sat down with the 68-year-old Olympian at his office at the capital's Leopold Sedar Senghor Stadium to talk about the meaning of the Youth Olympics for the west African nation, which he called a "source of pride" for the continent.
Olympic medals remain relatively rare in west Africa, with none of the five countries Senegal shares a border with — Mauritania, Mali, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and The Gambia — having ever picked up even a bronze.
Seated near the framed green jersey he wore the day he won his Olympic medal, Ba told AFP that hosting the Youth Olympic Games "is a good thing" towards producing athletes.
"Lots of young people will say to themselves, if these young people qualified, me too I can qualify," he told AFP, whether in "judo, swimming, volleyball, basketball or football".
But Senegal's road to Olympic success must also include better access to high-level competitions, of which there are few in Africa. Improved sports infrastructure and high-quality coaches are also key, he said.
The Youth Games, for athletes aged 17 and younger, are running for two weeks until Friday. As of publication early Tuesday, Senegal had already taken seven medals — four golds and three bronzes across beach wrestling, 3×3 basketball and judo.
But the tricky part is what comes next: The effort will be for naught if after the Olympics young people cannot "gain access to the stadiums, lack competitions or do not have qualified coaches", Ba said.
"Personally, when I wanted to win an Olympic medal, I went to Europe and the United States to work with a qualified coach."
At the 1988 Games, Ba completed the men's 400m hurdles in just 47.23 seconds, clenching silver in a race which Americans and Germans were favoured to dominate.
His second place sandwiched him between two Americans who took home a gold and bronze for the United States, which today has accumulated more than 3,100 medals.
– 'I can succeed too' –
Senegal competed in its first Olympics at the Tokyo Games in 1964, sending 12 participants in athletics.
Two decades later in 1984, it debuted at the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo with a single Alpine skier.
Athletics has been Senegal's most successful event at the Games, accounting for six of its 10 all-time best results, while freestyle wrestling makes up another three and football one.
Senegal's highly successful national football team, the Lions of Teranga, serve as a roadmap for success in other sports, Ba said.
"Football in Senegal had problems years ago. Even Senegal could not qualify for the African championship."
But "well-structured academies" were put in place and "little by little we've been able to gradually come to the point where we are among the best", he said.
Senegal won the Africa Cup of Nations in 2021 and again in 2025, only for the African confederation CAF to later strip it of its latest title and award Morocco the victory. Senegal has appealed the decision.
Countries that invest in sports win medals, Ba said.
"It is the state that possesses these resources", he added. "The stadiums belong to the state. There is a minister of sport. So they're the ones to boost sports in the country."
Right now "to compete in high-level competitions, one must go to Europe or the United States"," Ba said. "This is a clear deficiency."
On the infrastructure side there is also work to be done, Ba emphasised, pointing out, for example, that pole-vaulting facilities are virtually non-existent in Senegal.
Ba today directs the African Athletics Development Center in Dakar, a training facility for high-level athletics.
He believes that the need to produce winning athletes and Olympians is not just about medalling: There is a "beauty and unique nature to the Olympic Games or being an Olympian", he said.
"An Olympian is a point of reference for everyone in a country. People think, if they could succeed, I can succeed too."
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https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/senegals-only-olympic-medallist-hopes-091759243.html
