The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session ratified today the mutual agreement between Senegal and the IOC to postpone the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) Dakar 2022 to 2026. The proposal, which was approved by the IOC Executive Board, was made earlier this week by Senegalese President Macky Sall in a telephone conference with IOC President Thomas Bach, following in-depth discussions on the subject.
The postponement allows the IOC, the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and the International Federations (IFs) to better plan their activities, which have been strongly affected by the postponement of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, by the subsequent postponements of major international sports events, and by the operational and financial consequences of the global health crisis.
The last few months had seen significant progress in planning and preparations for the 4th Summer Youth Olympic Games. Following the official formation of the Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee (YOGOC) as a legal entity, resources have been mobilised and operational plans are at an advanced stage, with the completion and approval of the Edition Plan at the end of June 2020.
The IOC and Senegal understand that this news will be disappointing for many young athletes. Both parties can only appeal to their understanding. This agreement results from the large scale of the operational challenges which the IOC, the NOCs and the IFs are facing following the postponement of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. With this in mind, the IOC will continue to offer all IFs and NOC Continental Associations the full content of the educational programmes of the Youth Olympic Games. This will allow for the objectives of this very important and much-appreciated component of the YOG to be maintained through the many events organised between now and 2026, in particular during the Continental Youth Games.
The Winter Youth Olympic Games Gangwon 2024 have seen their project continue to move forward and intend to leverage the strong legacy of the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018. A YOG Task Force has been created locally and is composed of representatives from the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee, Gangwon Province and the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism. The YOGOC is expected to be formed by the end of 2020.
The development of the Edition Plan has started, and Gangwon 2024 intends to leverage the PyeongChang 2018 Legacy Foundation through various programmes for early activation and youth engagement, focusing both on sport and education.
You can find all the documents of the 136th Session of the IOC here.