DAKAR — At the Seoul 1988 Summer Olympic Games, Amadou Dia Ba won silver in the men's 400-meters hurdles to claim Senegal's first and only Olympic medal.
Nearly four decades later, the West African nation is hosting the continent's first-ever Olympics event, the 2026 Youth Olympics. The Games, Ba told reporters, mark an Olympic success for Senegal and Africa as a whole, even if medals have historically remained elusive.
Reporters 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 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 reporters that hosting the Youth Olympic Games "is a good thing" for producing athletes.
"Lots of young people will say to themselves, if these young people qualified, I can qualify, too," he told reporters, whether it is 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, started on Oct 31 and will run through Friday. As of Thursday, Senegal had already claimed 10 medals — five gold and five bronze — across beach wrestling, 3x3 basketball, judo and taekwondo.
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, clinching silver in a race that the US and Germany were expected to dominate.
His second place sandwiched him between two US runners who took home a gold and bronze for their country, which currently has more than 3,100 Olympic medals to its name.
'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 rounds out the list.
Known as the Lions of Teranga, Senegal's highly successful national football team serves as a roadmap for success in other sports, Ba said.
"Football in Senegal had problems years ago. Senegal could not even qualify for the African championship," he noted.
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 (that need) to boost sports in the country."
Right now "to compete in high-level competitions, one must go to Europe or the US," Ba said. "This is a clear deficiency."
On the infrastructure side, there is also work to be done, Ba emphasized, 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 athletes.
He believes that the need to produce winning athletes and Olympians is not just about medaling. 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."
AFP
