In 100 days, rugby’s brightest young prospects gather in Dakar for the start of the fourth Youth Olympic Games – and, for a third time, rugby sevens is one of dozens of sporting disciplines on the schedule.
Some 2,700 athletes are expected to compete in 153 events across 25 competition sports and 10 additional engagement sports at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games. Beyond the sport, the Games provides an important development, education and cultural platform for athletes.
This year’s Youth Olympic Games in west Africa is the first time an African nation has hosted an Olympic sporting event and it offers many of the brightest teen rugby talents their first chance to shine on an international stage.
The Opening Ceremony is on 31 October and the rugby tournament kicks off at the 8,000-seat Complexe Iba Mar Diop the following day, with medals awarded on 2 and 3 November, respectively.
World Rugby Chair Brett Robinson said: “Dakar 2026 is important to World Rugby for two exciting reasons. Firstly, we love the Youth Olympic Games, which is an important platform for future stars in a sporting and personal development context.
“Secondly, Africa is a region on the rise, with a rapidly growing participation and fanbase. We are excited about the platform Dakar will provide for the reach and resonance of rugby in Africa.”
The roll-call of players who made their bows on the Youth Olympic Games’ stage and went on to bigger things includes New Zealand’s Risi Pouri-Lane – now a star in both the sevens and 15s versions of the game – and Mahina Paul, who both made their earliest international sevens rugby marks with gold in at the Youth Olympic Games in 2018. The latter scored the gold medal-winning try, while the former now has HSBC SVNS titles to her name.
Four years earlier in Nanjing, the gold medal-winning Australia side included Dominique du Toit, who went on to win Commonwealth Games gold and silver, went to Tokyo 2020, and was part of Australia’s title-winning Rugby World Cup Sevens 2022 squad.
Australia’s flagbearer in Nanjing, Tiana Penitani, meanwhile, had already starred at RWC Sevens 2013 when she arrived at the Youth Olympic Games.
Meanwhile, 2014 silver-medallists Canada boasted a certain Charity Williams among their number, who is still carving up sevens pitches across the planet and has won senior Olympic bronze and silver medals in Rio and Paris; while their 2018 vintage, who finished third, included a young Keyara Wardley – who also claimed silver in Paris, and RWC 2021 semi-finalist Maddy Grant.
Marcos Moneta – who won gold with Argentina in the boys’ tournament at the 2018 games in Buenos Aires – now runs in tries for fun on the main international HSBC SVNS circuit, won World Rugby Men’s Sevens Player of the Year award in 2021 and has been nominated twice more.
That year’s champion Argentina boys’ squad also featured a young Lucio Cinti and Ignacio Mendy, who both featured in the 2026 Nations Championship.
Sacha Valleau – who claimed boys’ gold with France in rugby sevens’ 2014 Youth Olympic Games’ debut in China – went on to the Rio Olympics in 2016.
In Argentina in 2018, France picked up silver with a team that included Joachim Trouabal, who scored twice in the final and has since represented the country’s senior sevens squad, as well as Yoram Moefana, now a regular with France’s senior men’s 15s squad.
Kippei Ishida was part of the Japan squad that claimed bronze in 2018. He went on to captain his country at Paris 2024.
Meanwhile, after finishing fourth in Buenos Aires, South Africa’s Christie Grobelaar and Tiaan Pretorius went on to claim bronze at Paris 2024 with the senior sevens squad – the former also won gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
France’s girls’ sevens team, silver medallists in Buenos Aires, featured Lou Noel and Alycia Christiaens, both now regular names on teamsheets for Les Bleues’ sevens squad, and who represented their country at the Olympic Games in Paris. Current senior 15s players Axelle Berthoumieu and Charlotte Escudero were also on the squad.
The pathway to senior success via the Youth Olympics is a well-followed one – and these players are just a selection of the future stars who got their international start at the Youth Olympic Games.
As the countdown to the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games reaches 100 days, the question is: which of this year’s competitors from the 16 qualified teams – Argentina, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Samoa, host nation Senegal, and South Africa in the boys’ tournament; and Australia, China, Czechia, Kenya, Madagascar, Senegal, Spain, and USA in the girls’ competition – will follow their predecessors down the road to rugby superstardom?
More information on Dakar 2026 can be found at Olympics.com/fr/dakar-2026.
