OMM Newsroom
The fourth Summer Youth Olympic Games will begin today, October 31, in Dakar, the capital of Senegal. Events will be held in Dakar, Diamniadio and Saly. Nearly 2,700 athletes will compete for 153 medal sets across 25 sports. The Games were originally scheduled for 2022 but were postponed by four years because of the effects of the pandemic.
Azerbaijan will be represented by Gunel Karimli (55 kg), Tunar Guliyev (70 kg), Nihad Suleymanli (80 kg) and Elgun Karimli (90 kg) in beach wrestling; Suleyman Ismayilzade and Maryam Javadova in swimming; Zahra Isayeva (44 kg) and Adil Kazimli (73 kg) in taekwondo; Gular Huseynova (51 kg) in boxing; Abbas Huseynov in fencing; Nihad Khudoyev in road cycling; Ibrahim Talibov (55 kg) in judo; and Daniil Shuvayev in athletics.
Results of Azerbaijani athletes
The program does not include the traditional freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling events; beach wrestling will be held instead. Nihad Suleymanli won gold, Elgun Karimli silver and Tunar Guliyev bronze at the U-17 World Championships held in Baku in August. Ibrahim Talibov won the European Youth Cup in Bielsko-Biala and took silver at similar tournaments in Ganja and Berlin. He is due to compete on November 1.
Suleyman Ismayilzade is a champion of the third CIS Games and a bronze medalist at the sixth Islamic Solidarity Games. Maryam Javadova also won bronze at the Islamic Solidarity Games. Adil Kazimli is a two-time Azerbaijani champion and a bronze medalist at the Kazakhstan Open 2026. Previous results do not guarantee medals at these Games.
At the last Summer Youth Olympic Games, held in Buenos Aires in 2018, Azerbaijan won six medals with 17 athletes: two gold, one silver and three bronze. Vugar Talibov (66 kg) and Turan Bayramov (65 kg) became champions, Tarman Babayev (85 kg) won silver, while Javad Aghayev (63 kg), Nurlan Safarov (60 kg) and Shahana Nazarova (43 kg) took bronze. Wrestlers won two of the medals. Azerbaijan has won 26 medals across the three editions: 12 gold, 10 silver and four bronze.
The opening ceremony will begin at 22:30 Baku time at Abdoulaye Wade Stadium in Diamniadio. Swimmers Suleyman Ismayilzade and Maryam Javadova will carry Azerbaijan’s flag.
