For the first time ever, displaced and refugee youths are competing at the Youth Olympic Games, being held this year in Dakar, Senegal. The event aims to remind people around the world not only of the realities of displacement but also of the resilience of young athletes in the face of adversity.
The participation of a six-athlete youth team for the first time at the Youth Olympic Games celebrates the Olympic spirit against a backdrop of violence and war in Africa and around the world.
Put together by the International Olympic Committee and the Olympic Refuge Foundation, the team of young athletes aged 14 to 17 represents millions of uprooted and displaced people.
Their inclusion at the youth games also marks another major milestone for refugees competing in international sport, following the debut of a Refugee Olympic Team at the 2016 Rio Games.
Read AlsoThe 'Gamechanging Team': Refugees turned football stars at the 2026 World Cup
From judo to sprint, young athletes ride on high hopes
Among those competing is 15-year-old judoka Arno Yafunga, who has already competed in the boys' 55-kilogram division, narrowly missing out on a bronze medal.
Yafunga's family fled violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2017, when he was six years old. The ongoing crisis in the country is one of the world's largest humanitarian emergencies.
Read AlsoRefugee Olympic Team flies the flag for resilience at Paris Games
The family first settled near Kenya's Kakuma refugee camp, where Yafunga's father found a local judo club to help him overcome the trauma of exile.
The sport soon attracted his son who credits judo with keeping him away from local gang activity.
His father, meanwhile, sees the Youth Games in Dakar as just the beginning of Yafunga's journey, with his sights set on the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Another competitor originally from the DRC is 16-year-old sprinter Florence Masumbe, who was identified through Game Connect, an initiative supported by the Olympic Refuge Foundation that uses sport to promote mental health and community integration among displaced people.
Raised in Uganda's Rwamwanja settlement, the young Congolese athlete will compete in the 200-meter event, hoping to sprint her way to the top.
Masumbe told the AP news agency that she sees the Youth Olympic Games as an opportunity to challenge common perceptions of refugee youth, emphasizing that displacement does not diminish talent or ambition.
Read AlsoRefugee weightlifter eager to compete for her new homeland, Germany
Emphasis on millions of displaced people globally
The teenage athletes in Dakar will compete in judo, taekwondo and track and field. They represent young refugees from settlements in Kenya and Uganda, amid growing displacement worldwide.
According to UNHCR, 117.8 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced at the end of 2025. Sub-Saharan Africa alone had 38.8 million internally displaced people at the end of 2024, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.
Against this backdrop, officials hope that the team's presence in Senegal serves to highlight this scale of human migration and related suffering.
With their bright yellow uniforms and their unwavering spirit, the young athletes have undoubtedly left a mark on the games, reminding spectators and other participants about the transformative power of sport for all ages.
Read AlsoA refugee's story of resilience and hope
with AP