On 31 October, Dakar opens the fourth Summer Youth Olympic Games, which run until 13 November across Dakar, Diamniadio and Saly. The International Olympic Committee describes them as the first Olympic sports event ever held on African soil, under a motto that speaks three languages at once: "Africa Welcomes, Dakar Celebrates", "L'Afrique accueille, Dakar célèbre", "Afrig Dalal, Ndakaaru Jëmël".
Karate will be there, but not on the medal programme. Twenty-five sports compete in Dakar. Karate belongs to a second circle of ten "engagement sports", alongside canoe, sport climbing, golf, weightlifting, hockey, modern pentathlon, shooting, surfing and tennis. No titles, no podiums, no rankings: the emphasis lies on discovery, participation and the bond a young person might form with a club long after the Games.
Kata on the Corniche
All ten engagement sports share one address, the Place du Souvenir Africain on Dakar's western Corniche, facing the Atlantic. The IOC calls the area the Espace Let's Move, organised with the national federations and local partners. During the Games it becomes the main hub of celebrations, with concerts and cultural performances.
Each sport has its own space, run by its international federation, and a promotional stand presenting local clubs. The programme rests on three pillars. Initiation sessions let visitors try the basics in a supervised setting. Demonstrations by high-level athletes show each discipline at full speed. Promotional activities, including dedicated "Focus Days", give each sport its turn in the light. The names of the karateka who will demonstrate, and the exact karate timetable, have not yet been published.
The rhythm of each day is already set. Mornings belong to schools, and more than 8,000 pupils are expected across the programme. Further workshops follow in the early afternoon, and from 16:00 to 18:30 the square opens to everyone, with 20-minute rotations so that visitors can move from one stand to the next. For karate, this means a child from a Dakar neighbourhood may step onto a tatami for the first time a few metres from the ocean, try a first kata, and discover what kumite asks of those who practise it.
The World Karate Federation has prepared this ground. In February, during the 145th IOC Session in Milan, a WKF delegation led by CEO Sara Wolff and Executive Committee member Davide Benetello sat down with the leaders of the Dakar 2026 Organising Committee to review karate's participation and its role within the Youth Olympic framework. The meeting belongs to a wider Olympic effort, which we followed at the WKF Supervisory Board meeting on Brisbane 2032.
Douglas Brose, from Buenos Aires to Dakar
The most familiar face on the Corniche will be Brazilian. In April, the IOC appointed Douglas Brose as karate's Athlete Role Model for Dakar 2026. A three-time world champion, seven-time continental champion and gold medallist at The World Games, Brose will be on the ground with the young athletes, offering guidance on competition and taking part in educational workshops. He follows Nassim Varasteh and Ivan Leal, who held the same role for karate at the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games.
"My goal in Dakar is not only to share technical knowledge but also to help young athletes understand how to think, behave, and prepare like high-level competitors," Brose said when his appointment was announced. WKF President Antonio Espinós, for his part, singled out "the way he conducts himself both on and off the tatami". Since then, Brose has also taken the chair of the WKF Athletes' Commission, a step we covered here.
A karate nation at home
Karate hardly needs an introduction in Senegal. According to the Senegalese National Olympic and Sports Committee, the discipline arrived around 1967 with a French technical adviser, Maître Picard, who trained the first Senegalese karateka within the judo federation. Karate grew there as an associated discipline until 1981, when it left to form the Senegalese Federation of Karate and Associated Disciplines (FSKDA). Pioneers such as Fernand Nunes, Alioune Badara Hane and Bouna Ndao went on to train generations of black belts.
The federation's current president, El Moctar Diop, explained the sport's reach in an interview with the Dakar 2026 organisers. "It is very easy to find a place to practise karate in Senegal. A classroom, a courtyard in a house," he said, before adding that in the dojo, children are forbidden to fight. He speaks from experience: twice African champion, three times a competitor at the World Championships, and today a doctor in mathematics and computer science. "That is what karate is," he said. In some clubs, he noted, coaches ask to see their pupils' school reports.
Across the continent, karate is organised within the African Karate Federation, led by Souleymane Gaye.
For two weeks, then, karate will be in Dakar with no medal to win. What it can gain is harder to count: a few thousand first bows, families pointed towards a neighbourhood dojo, and the sight of a world champion talking with teenagers about how to prepare, behave and think. In the city where the Olympic Movement holds its first event in Africa, that is a meaningful place to begin.
Photo: wkf.net
Sources
- IOC, Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games: https://www.olympics.com/ioc/dakar-2026
- Olympics.com, engagement sports programme: https://www.olympics.com/en/dakar-2026/news/joj-dakar-2026-les-sports-dengagement-un-programme-immersif-pour-initier-le-grand-public
- Olympics.com, daily schedule of the engagement sports (in French): https://www.olympics.com/fr/dakar-2026/actualite/comment-faire-pour-voir-plusieurs-sports-le-meme-jour
- IOC, Dakar 2026 venues and the Corniche Ouest (in French): https://www.olympics.com/cio/dakar-2026-sites
- Olympics.com, interview with El Moctar Diop, FSKDA (in French): https://www.olympics.com/fr/dakar-2026/actualite/derriere-le-succes-du-karate-un-espoir-solide-de-medailles-pour-les-jeunes-senegalais
- WKF, Douglas Brose appointed karate's Athlete Role Model: https://www.wkf.net/news-center/article/!/3140/douglas-brose-appointed-karates-athlete-role-model-for-dakar-2026-youth-olympic-games
- WKF, delegation at the 145th IOC Session in Milan: https://www.wkf.net/news-center/article/!/3080/wkf-delegation-reviews-karates-global-progress-at-145th-ioc-session-in-milan
- WKF, Youth Olympic Games Dakar 2026 event page: https://www.wkf.net/olympics/championship/!/178/youth-olympic-games-dakar-2026
- CNOSS, karate at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games (in French): https://cnoss.sn/dakar-2026-j-280-karate-discipline-technique-et-valeurs-olympiques-aux-joj/
