First flag since 2022 suspension

Russia's delegation of 13 athletes is competing under its national flag at the youth olympic games dakar 2026, the first time an Olympic event has featured a Russian team with its national symbols since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine brought a suspension in 2022.

The contrast with recent Games is stark:

• •At the Paris Olympics of 2024, Russians competed as neutral athletes without national symbols.
• •At this year's Winter Olympics, Russian athletes again took part as neutrals, with no flag or national identity attached to their entries.

In Dakar, the Russian flag returns to Olympic competition as part of the broader Games now under way in Senegal, where about 2,700 athletes aged 14 to 17 are competing across 25 sports, with 153 medal events on the program including athletics, swimming and 3x3 basketball.

Coventry: athletes not accountable for governments

International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry has framed the participation rules around the athletes themselves rather than the states behind them. The Olympics, she has said, should not "hold athletes accountable for the actions of their governments."

The position from the IOC president carries weight at these Games, where Coventry is among the senior figures present at the opening.

The Games the Russians are joining

The Youth Olympic Games opened on Saturday in Senegal, the first Olympic event ever held on African soil, with tens of thousands of spectators at the Diamniadio Olympic Stadium near Dakar.

About 2,700 athletes aged 14 to 17 will compete through November 13 in the capital, Dakar, the nearby city of Diamniadio and the beach resort of Saly.

The Russian delegation of 13 athletes remains in competition under its national flag as the Games continue in Senegal through November 13.