INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE (IOC) has invited creatives and Olympic enthusiasts worldwide to submit designs for the obverse side of the medals for the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games (YOG), offering a unique chance to shape one of the most iconic symbols of the Games.
Submissions will be evaluated against five criteria: creativity, originality, alignment with the YOG story, feasibility, and the accompanying written description.
A distinguished panel will review the entries, including IOC Dakar 2026 Coordination Commission chair Humphrey Kayange OLY; Gangwon 2024 medal design competition winner Dante Akira Uwai; Olympian Artist Annabel Eyres OLY; IOC Young Leaders Peniamina Percival OLY and Pragnya Mohan; IOC Young Reporters Yun Su Park and Yann Durand; and Dakar 2026 ambassador Elzo Jamdong. Their recommendations will be presented to the IOC Executive Board for approval.
The winning design will appear on medals awarded to athletes who achieve podium finishes in Senegal. Submissions are open from 2 September to 7 October 2025 through a dedicated platform on Olympics.com, where participants can also access a toolkit with design guidelines, specifications, and rules.
The reverse of the medal will be created by the Dakar 2026 Organising Committee and will highlight Senegalese cultural motifs alongside the YOG emblem.
Scheduled from 31 October 2026, the Dakar Youth Olympic Games will span two weeks and be staged across three locations—Dakar, Diamniadio, and Saly—featuring the world’s top athletes aged 17 and under.
The designer of the obverse of the Gangwon 2024 medal Dante Akira Uwai explained, “A lot has changed since Gangwon. Many opportunities have opened up to me thanks to the medal design competition, especially for my career. But I think the most important change was actually internal. It was realising the transformative power of both art and sport.”
