Young athletes from all over the world were devastated by the news that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and representatives from Senegal have decided to postpone the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar 2022 to 2026.
IOC President Thomas Bach announced the decision which meets the requirement of responsibility and the concern for efficiency imposed by current circumstances.
The Games in 2022 were supposed to be the 4th Youth Olympics since their beginning in 2010. The last Games were held in 2018 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The postponement of Dakar 2022 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 2022 event had to be the first-ever Olympic Games to be held in Africa, but now Senegal will have 4 more years to prepare for the big stage.