With less than two months to go, the countdown has started for Senegalese athletes towards the Paris 2024 Olympic Games which will take place from July 26 to August 11. Eight athletes are in the home stretch of the Olympic Games which will take place from July 26 to August 11 and from August 28 to September 8 for the Paralympic Games. Eight athletes from six disciplines will be on the starting line during these world games.
Eight athletes from six disciplines will represent Senegal at these major world sport events. which will take place from July 26 to August 11 and from August 28 to September 8 for the Paralympic Games. These elite athletes will come from various disciplines such as athletics, canoeing, judo, fencing and taekwondo. Games where Senegal aims to add a second medal after that won in 1988 by the athlete Amadou Dia Ba from the very distant Olympic Games in Seoul (South Korea).
Louis François Mendy, the great challenge of the African number 1
For these Paris Olympics, Senegalese athletics will once again place its great hopes on Louis François Mendy, the first Senegalese to qualify for Paris2024. The performances achieved on African and global tracks speak for him. The 110m hurdles specialist managed to reach the minimums for the Olympics by setting a time of 13 seconds, 18 hundredths at the Troyes international meeting in France. By beating the Senegalese and African record in this specialty of the 110m hurdles, the 24-year-old athlete put an end to a long period, around ten years, where Senegalese athletics had always benefited from a wild card or invitation for participation in the last Olympic Games.
Despite these assets, which allow him to legitimately believe in a place at the highest summit, Louis François Mendy is not approaching this final straight line which leads to the Paris meetings in the right conditions. On this momentum, the Senegalese hurdler was once again alerted on the sidelines of the Dakar international meeting in which he participated this past Saturday 26 at the annex of the Abdoulaye Wade stadium with the added bonus of first place in his race (13” 35). “I’m not going to brag. I am number 1 in Africa and 12th in the world. I am capable of being in the final of the Olympics. If I have good preparation. I ask the State to allow me to do training courses like my competitors do,” alerted the 400 meter hurdles specialist. “This situation does not motivate but as they say in sport, you need an iron mind. With or without the State, I will do my best,” he suggested.
Judo Mbagnick Ndiaye, a second Olympics for the Senegalese heavyweight
Triple African champion (2019, 2020 and 2023), Mbagnick Ndiaye (-100 kg), will once again be the standard bearer of Senegalese judo at the Olympics. The heavyweight qualified through the continental quota. The African champion had the possibility of offering another place to Senegal by qualifying on the basis of the world ranking and the world top 18 at the end of the world championships in Abu Dhabi which took place from May 19 to 24. Which would allow the highest ranked Senegalese, notably Abderahmane Diao (-90 kg) and Ryan Dacosta (-90 kg) and Monica Sagna (+78) to be invited to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. But it is not managed, at the end of these Worlds, to free one of his compatriots a place at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
While waiting for the Casablanca Open in Morocco (June 1-2) and Abidjan in Ivory Coast (June 8-9), the reigning African vice-champion of +100 kg will be the only Senegalese judoka at the Games Olympic Games in Paris, as was the case at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio (Brazil) and the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo (Japan).
Canoe-Kayak: Yves Bourhis, Combé Seck and Edmond Sanka, in the Paris basins
Canoeing and kayaking will be the most represented discipline at the Paris Olympics. No less than three athletes will line up this summer in the Parisian pools. Leader of the discipline in Senegal, Combé Seck succeeded last November in winning his ticket to the African championships. Yves Bourhis who distinguished himself in the discipline of Canoe Slalom on the Reunion Islands. The canoeist made a comeback four years after missing the Tokyo Olympics where he was forced to withdraw following an injury during the qualifying tournament. To these athletes, we must add the qualification for the Paralympic Games of Edmond Sanka, the qualification came through his fourth place at the last Para Canoe World Cup this May in Hungary. He will be one of two representatives of Senegal at the Paralympic Games.
The fencer Ndeye Binta Diongue Bocar Diop and Idrissa Keita of taekwondo on the track
Ndeye Binta Diongue also raised Senegalese fencing by offering her only ticket to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. It was at the end of the African qualifications in Algiers, Algeria where she achieved a great performance in the individual event. feminine and dominating all his group matches. She previously competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, winning the Africa zone qualifying tournament. It was a historic achievement, since it was the first participation of a Senegalese fencer in the Olympic Games in sixteen years.
The list of qualified athletes is completed by two taekwondoists. It is Bocar Diop Idrissa Keïta (para taekwondo) who managed to win three tickets for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games during the Taekwondo Olympic Qualification Tournament (TQO) which takes place in Dakar from February 9 to 11. Bocar Diop won his ticket in his -58 kg category. He finished with the gold medal ahead of Issaka Nouridine (Nigeria) and Issa Diakité (Ivory Coast). His teammate Idrissa Keita achieved the same performance in his 80 kg category to pave the way to the Olympics.
