Canada’s potential future Olympians gained valuable sporting and life experience in Senegal at the Dakar 2026 Summer Youth Olympic Games, which wrapped up on Friday.
Canada won five medals across four sports — a gold, a silver and three bronze. Two came in boxing and one was from each of judo, fencing and skateboarding. Canada’s men’s rugby sevens team also came up just shy of the podium, finishing fourth.
Simon Shan won Canada’s lone gold medal, becoming the nation’s first-ever Youth Olympic champion in fencing. The 16-year-old finished first in men’s épée, adding to his silver medal at the FIE Cadet World Championships earlier this year and bronze at the latter event the year prior.
Dakar 2026 was the first international gold medal for Shan, who was then named one of Canada’s closing ceremony flag bearers.
“I’m feeling great. I’m very happy, very excited. I don’t think I’ve fully processed it yet. I’m just very grateful to be able to come here, represent Canada and win,” Shan said in a press release.
Simon Shan (centre) on the Dakar 2026 podium with his gold medal. (Photo: OIS/Hassan Wamwayi)
Sharing closing ceremony flag bearer duties with Shan was boxer Mehreen Khakh, who earned a bronze medal in the women’s 51kg event. Khakh was the first Canadian woman to compete in boxing at the Youth Olympics, and a third-place finish for the 17-year-old was the cherry on top.
Another 17-year-old, Lisandro Garcia Rebelo, won a boxing bronze for Canada, in the men’s 55kg competition.
“I feel super proud that I get to not only represent my country, but represent my people, represent my background,” said Khakh. “I started boxing five years ago just for the exercise. I’d never even thought I would have a fight, let alone be at the Youth Olympic Games, being the first-ever Canadian female boxer.”
Mehreen Khakh (far right) on the Dakar 2026 podium with her bronze medal. (Photo: OIS/Hassan Wamwayi)
Canada’s other bronze medal came from rising skateboarding star Evie Pritchard. The 14-year-old was the youngest member of Team Canada in Dakar, and finished third in the women’s street event. Dakar 2026 was the first Youth Olympics to feature skateboarding, which has been an Olympic sport since Tokyo 2020.
Pritchard is the top-ranked Canadian woman in the World Skate street rankings at 20th, and could be one of Canada’s youngest athletes at LA28 if she qualifies.
“I’m just really glad to be representing Canada. I love inspiring people and I’m just really happy,” said Pritchard. “I’m glad I did the best I could, I had a lot of fun, and everyone else did so well.”
Canada’s silver medallist in Dakar was also the first Canadian athlete to reach the podium, Anes Mati with his second-place finish in men’s -66kg judo. The 17-year-old is the reigning cadet world champion in the event and heads from Dakar to Tashkent, Uzbekistan for the junior world championships next week.
He is another member of the Dakar team with the highest potential to be on the plane to Los Angeles in two years.
Evie Pritchard competes for Canada in skateboarding at Dakar 2026. (Photo: OIS/Felix Diemer)
Time will tell if any of Canada’s 28 Youth Olympians end up competing at Los Angeles 2028, Brisbane 2032 or beyond, following in the footsteps of Félix Dolci, Finlay Knox and Charity Williams, among others.
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At the very least, they will have had a great experience that will serve them well in the future.
The Athlete Education Programme also ensured athletes learned how to navigate a multi-sport environment like the Olympics, and learn about safety and wellbeing in sport, preventing competition manipulation, staying mentally fit and anti-doping. Olympians participating in the IOC Young Leaders and the Athlete Role Models programs — including Canadian artistic swimmer Jacqueline Simoneau — led the Athlete Education Programme.
“Each Team Canada athlete who competed at Dakar 2026 has gained extraordinary experience that they can apply throughout the rest of their sport journeys, and memories they will look back on fondly for life. We look forward to following these young athletes as they continue to develop in sport and in life,” said Eric Myles, the Canadian Olympic Committee’s Chief Sport Officer. “I would also like to thank our Mission Team and NSO staff who did an excellent job supporting Team Canada’s delegation in Senegal.”
The future of the Youth Olympics is unclear as the IOC evaluates how successful they have been or will continue to be. There is no host for the 2030 summer edition yet after Italy hosts the Winter Youth Olympic Games in 2028.
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