In a historic moment for the Olympic movement, 25 young athletes will make up the Portuguese delegation in Senegal, the Portuguese Olympic Committee announced today.

Futsal will be the most represented sport at Dakar 2026, although the Portuguese Football Federation has not yet announced the 10 athletes selected for the competition.

Athletics follows, with triple jumper João Matos and 100m hurdler Sara Ferreira—both of whom competed at the Skopje 2025 European Youth Olympic Festival—joining the squad of five athletes travelling to Dakar.

Swimmer Carolina Taveira and table tennis player Júlia Leal also have experience with the Portuguese delegation, having participated in Skopje 2025.

At this historic fourth edition of the Youth Olympic Games, Portugal will also be represented in badminton, judo, beach wrestling, coastal rowing, triathlon, sailing, and wushu taolu (a martial arts discipline).

At the previous edition in Buenos Aires (2018), the national delegation won five medals, including two golds: one from the women’s futsal team and another from triathlete Alexandre Montez, who added a mixed relay title to the silver medal he won in the individual event.

Dakar was originally scheduled to host the fourth edition in 2022, but the event was postponed by four years because of COVID-19-related constraints. Around 2,700 athletes will compete in the Senegalese capital across 25 sports, plus 10 exhibition sports.

The International Olympic Committee created the Youth Olympic Games as a multi-sport event for young athletes up to age 17.

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