Global Call for Artists to Design Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Medals

Creatives and Olympic fans worldwide are being invited to help shape history by designing the obverse side of the medals for the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games (YOG).

The winning design will be featured on medals awarded to young athletes who reach the podium in Senegal.

Submissions are open from 2 September to 7 October 2025 via a dedicated platform on Olympics.com where candidates can also access a toolkit with specifications, rules and guidelines.

Dante Akira Uwai, the designer of the Gangwon 2024 medal, reflected on how the competition changed his life.

“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,” he said.

Entries will be judged on five criteria: creativity, originality, relevance to the YOG narrative, feasibility and the written description. A jury made up of Olympic officials, past winners and ambassadors—including IOC Dakar 2026 Coordination Commission Chair Humphrey Kayange and Dakar 2026 ambassador Elzo Jamdong—will review applications before presenting recommendations to the IOC Executive Board.

The reverse side of the medal will be developed separately by the Dakar 2026 Organising Committee incorporating Senegalese cultural elements alongside the YOG emblem.

Uwai shared how imagining athletes on the podium guided his creative process.

“One thing that happened to me a lot when designing my medal was to visualise the athlete receiving it. What do I want them to feel? What do I want them to see? And when they are older and full of stories to tell, what memories should the medal bring back when they see it hanging on the wall?” he said.

Looking back on Gangwon 2024, he added “I think the most impactful memory was seeing the medal being awarded to an athlete for the very first time. I had imagined that scene for a whole year, and when it finally happened, it was a very, very emotional moment.”

The Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games will run for two weeks from 31 October, across Dakar, Diamniadio and Saly bringing together the world’s best athletes aged 17 and under.