The United States Embassy in Senegal closed a week-long skateboarding exchange program on September 12, 2026 at Patte-d’Oie, ahead of Dakar’s turn hosting the 2026 Youth Olympic Games, the first Olympic sporting event to be held on African soil.
The closing ceremony drew the mayors of Dakar, Grand Yoff and Thiès, the president of the Senegalese National Olympic and Sports Committee, the president of the Organizing Committee of the Youth Olympic Games, and the president of the Senegalese Roller-Skate Federation.
The week’s clinics were led by Dr. Neftalie Williams, the first U.S. Sports Ambassador for Skateboarding, and Olympic skateboarder Minna Stess, who worked directly with Senegalese athletes and coaches in Dakar and Thiès. Williams, on his first visit to Senegal, said the young athletes he coached arrived eager to learn regardless of skill level.
“There’s no reason to be afraid of skateboarding,” Williams said in an interview. “If you can physically walk up a set of stairs, you’re able to step on a skateboard. … No need to be afraid. Just step on and go.”
Jennifer Davis Paguada, Chargé d’Affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Senegal, said the program is intended to continue ahead of the Youth Olympic Games and to support Senegalese athletes pursuing a spot in skateboarding’s Olympic program at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
Stess, working with a group of that size for the first time, spent the week teaching skateboarding vocabulary and technique through translators, since most of the athletes she coached were French-speaking.
The ceremony included the unveiling of a mural depicting Senegalese youth skateboarding, painted by local artists Mamadou Niang, known as JAHBLOW, and Nathaniel Antonio Rosene Ovelar, known as CECE. Modern skateboarding traces its roots to 1950s Southern California, when surfers adapted the sport for pavement before it grew into a global pursuit now included in the Olympic Games.
Drummers and dancers performed as the ceremony concluded.
