13 Russians vs. hundreds of rivals: how the Russian team took 14 medals at the Games in Dakar
In Dakar, for the first time in the history of the Olympic movement, the Summer Youth Games are being hosted on the African continent. For our country, this tournament was really special. In July, the Executive Committee of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) suspended the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), introduced in 2023. As a result, the Russians went to Senegal under the national flag, and in honor of their victories, the national anthem again sounded.
The Russian national team has already completed its performance, although the competition itself will last until November 13. And here it is worth paying attention to one amazing detail, which perfectly shows the real alignment of forces. Our delegation was extremely compact – only 13 people. China sent 66 athletes (16 men and 50 women) to Dakar, while Japan sent 45 athletes (26 men and 19 women).
However, Russian athletes have shown phenomenal effectiveness. Our team has 14 awards: eight gold, four silver and two bronze medals. This result brought Russia to third place in the overall medal standings.
Only the giants of Asian sports are ahead. The leading team is China, which has 16 gold, eight silver and six bronze awards, and their athletes participate in 49 competitions in 21 sports. Japan is in second place with 9 gold, 8 silver and 9 bronze medals. Closes the top four team of Egypt - it consists of 44 athletes, performing in 18 sports, and they took 6 gold, 1 silver and 5 bronze awards.
Who forged this success in Senegal? Russian athletes performed in nine sports: swimming, gymnastics, cycling, judo, taekwondo, fencing, equestrian sports, skateboarding and wushu.
The absolute heroes of the tournament were swimmers Seraphim Fokina and Bogdan Toropkin, who brought the team two gold medals. In addition, Toropkin added silver to them. One gold in the piggy bank put fencer Ulyana Belykh, cyclist Angelina Novolodskaya, gymnasts Daniil Smirnov and Polina Dmitrieva.
Silver awards were also won by Toropkin, cyclist Stepan Bortnik, judoka Anastasia Dobrovolskaya and taekwondist Elena Thamokova. The bronze standings were supplemented by cyclist Novolodskaya and taekwondist Bashir Adjiev.
To understand the weight of this achievement, you need to look at the history of the issue. The last Summer Youth Games were held in Buenos Aires in 2018. Then our huge team of 94 people took first place in the unofficial medal standings, winning 59 awards - 29 gold, 18 silver and 12 bronze. At the 2020 Winter Games in Lausanne, the Russians also won the unofficial standings, taking 29 medals (10 gold, 11 silver and 8 bronze). But we missed the 2024 Winter Youth Games in Gangwondo, South Korea, and our athletes did not compete there.
In Dakar, around 2,700 athletes are currently competing for 153 awards in 25 sports. The fact that 13 of our athletes were able to break into the top 3, bypass huge delegations of other countries and show the highest class, says one thing: our guys know how to hit the target, even when there are very few of them.
