YOG Dakar 2026: why is Eden Kazoum’s bronze not counted for Senegal?
Rider Eden Kazoum won bronze in team show jumping at the YOG Dakar 2026. But this medal, won with Team Africa, does not appear on Senegal’s official counter.
On November 5, at the Diamniadio Equestrian Center, Eden Kazoum climbed onto the third step of the podium in the team show jumping event. A performance praised in the press and on social networks, where many added it to the results of the Senegalese delegation. Wrongly, if we stick to the official medal table. It all comes down to the composition of the team.
The young Senegalese did not compete under the national colors, but within Team Africa, alongside the South African Bo Reed, the Egyptian Yassin El Bassiuony and the Moroccan Ghali Bougja. At the Youth Olympic Games, equestrian works like this: each qualified country only fields one rider, and the riders are grouped into continental teams. They don’t even ride their own horses, allocated by lot.
A separate line on the board However, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) does not distribute the medals of a team made up of athletes from several nations between countries. These so-called “mixed” teams are registered under a specific code, MIX, and their medals are counted separately, outside the national balance sheets. During the protocol ceremony, it is the Olympic flag that is raised. This practice has been used at the YOG since the first edition, in Singapore in 2010.
The table published this Monday, November 9 on the official Games website confirms this. After 101 out of 151 events, Senegal occupies 6th place with 7 medals: 4 gold and 3 bronze. The titles are the work of beach wrestlers Elisabeth Diatta (55 kg), Maguette Diop (80 kg) and Ndeye Khady Anna Diatta (45 kg), as well as the Cubs of 3×3 basketball.
The bronzes go to judoka Matar Diop (-66 kg), wrestler Ablaye Diouf (90 kg) and the Lioncelles of 3×3 basketball, medalists this Monday. No equestrian medal appears on the delegation file. No individual catch-up Eden Kazoum, Senegal junior champion in 2025 and the country’s only representative in equestrian, had a second chance to bring home a medal counted for Senegal: the individual final, on November 6.
She received 14 penalty points, including 6 for exceeding the time, and finished far from the podium. The title went to Swiss Mike Smits. His bronze remains a Youth Olympic medal in its own right, registered in his personal record. But presenting Senegal’s record at 8 medals, adding this continental podium, is inaccurate.
Abdou Khadir SECK
