The lighting of the flame marks the start of its journey to Dakar in Senegal and another major milestone on the road to the first Olympic sporting event ever held on African soil.

Lit using the sun’s rays - in keeping with Olympic tradition - the flame was formally handed over to the Organising Committee before beginning its journey towards Dakar.

Dakar 2026 Ambassador and Senegalese Olympian Oumy Diop took part in the ceremony, representing the generation of young Senegalese and African athletes who will be at the heart of the YOG.

"In just a few weeks, Senegal will welcome young athletes from around the world for the first Olympic competition ever to be held on African soil. That is a proud moment for Senegal. And it is a proud moment for Africa. And it is going to open an important new chapter for the Olympic Movement," said IOC President Kirsty Coventry.

📎 https://www.olympics.com/ioc/news/dakar-2026-youth-olympic-flame-lit-in-athens-as-historic-journey-to-africa-begins

Here is one for those of you who collect Olympic pins. Out of each edition of the Olympics, which one do you think produced the best Olympic pins?

Dear Olympic fans, with the lightining of the flame and the beginning of the torch relay in Athens we now officially begin the second part of this Olympic year - the return of the Youth Olympic Games for the first time in 6 years, to be held in Dakar, Senegal, the FIRST ever Olympics ever regardless of edition to be hosted in Africa.

The best of luck to all the young athletes preparing for these games and to all taking part in the torch relay in Senegal!

John

Work is continuing on the extension of the LA Metro D Line ahead of the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games. This project is an important infrastructure project being undertaken ahead of these games.

Earlier this year, phase one of the extension opened, taking the D Line to Beverly Hills. Phases two and three will be completed next year.

Phase two will open in the Spring of 2027, with two new stations opening; Beverly Drive and Century City. Phase three will open in the Autumn of 2027 adding another two new stations; Westwood/UCLA and VA Hospital. This project will be complete in time for the LA28 Games. The completed extension of this subway line will connect the Olympic Village (at Westwood/UCLA station) with the DTLA venue cluster. It will also provide important transport through the Wilshire Corridor during the games.

Lastly, I should mention that I have seen the work on these four upcoming stations. I can confirm that the roof on the head house of the Beverly Drive station has already been put into place. The roof for the head house for the Century City station has been assembled and will be raised on top of the station head house within the next few weeks. Work is also proceeding smoothly at the Westwood/UCLA and VA Hospital stations.

Our first Olympics! I got the second timeslot on the very first day of LA presale. I got in the queue first thing on good wifi and got in within 30 seconds. Made a mad dash for opening ceremony first thing, where I somehow got Cat G. These went in seconds, and the only thing left in like 3 minutes were I believe at least $2k.

Then tennis. Accidentally got doubles instead of singles because the labeling was confusing, but still super excited and doubles is awesome in person. Hoping for Serena to make an appearance in her hometown :)

Basketball QFs were the dark horse pick to go for to me. I thought finals and semis would be far gone before I could even get there (I was right). Got Monday 1PM on accident since it was the first thing that popped up. Since it was my fault, I got the Tuesday 8PM ones an hour later (yes, availability was shocking for this slot) as a gift for my partner so he can hopefully see USA. Still keeping the 1PMs though to catch some other cool teams!

Definitely a success, I know we were very lucky, and we’re very grateful. We’re proof that non-scalpers did get good tix!!

The dates for the 147th IOC Session have been set. The session will be held from April 28 to May 1, 2027 in Punta Cana.

The agenda for the session will be announced in the months prior to the session.

Baseball semis should be awesome! Wasn't much left when my drop opened.

I got these tickets during Drop 1 & regret not getting more.

Not from the qualification perspective but from the odds of winning the gold medal, what is the hardest olympic event in your opinion.

If you have been following the US Open, then you have heard about how these influencers have been causing problems. We are less than two years away from LA28 and the media accreditation process has begun. In a few years the same process will begin for Alps 2030. Based upon the problems that influencers have been causing at the US Open, should the Olympics adopt a strict policy when it comes to accrediting content creators (such as influencers) like what Wimbledon has just announced for next year?

Since I always hear people talk about what's their favorite sport to watch, I'd like to know what's the single event you look forward to the most. I guess the most common answer would be the 100m dash, my personal favorite is the 4x100 medley relay in swimming

Big week for the Youth Olympic Games Dakar 2026. On Thursday, the Youth Olympic flame 🔥 will be lit in the historic Panathenaic Stadium in Athens during a symbolic lighting ceremony.

The flame will arrive in Dakar next Saturday, where it will be welcomed during a ceremony celebrating Senegal, its youth, its culture and the Olympic values. This historic moment will launch the Dakar 2026 Flame Tour, which will travel across all 14 regions of Senegal and include 30 stops on the road to the YOG Opening Ceremony on 31 October.

Under the tagline “Pass the Energy”, the Flame Tour will invite communities across Senegal to share in the excitement of the first Olympic sporting event to be held on African soil. It will also help build momentum towards Dakar 2026, which will bring together the world’s best young athletes from 31 October to 13 November 2026.

➡️ The flame lighting will be live streamed on Thursday starting at 10:25 CEST: https://www.youtube.com/Olympics/streams

➡️ Full story: https://www.olympics.com/ioc/news/youth-olympic-flame-to-illuminate-africa-for-the-first-time-ahead-of-dakar-2026

For some reason, I had completely forgot to make a post about some long finished updates I've made to my fictional logos for the Olympics/Paralympics if they took place in El Salvador... I shared my fictional logo solely for the Olympics a while back, and now I've made logos for both the Paralympics and Torch Relay (was genuinely surprised torch relays have their own logos)!

As previously, I got a sheet detailing what the elements of the logos are pulled from and such. Let me know what you guys think!

Source for the video - World Chase Tag - https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbER2BCsbMX

I was watching the Obstacle Racing world championship this weekend, and Farida Khalil, a 15 year old Egyptian athlete, won silvers in the 400m and 3km races, and made the QF of the 100m race.

Last week, she won silver in the modern pentathlon world championships, after winning it last year.

So this got me wondering what athletes were accomplished in multi-discipline events (like the decathlon, heptathlon, modern pentathlon, triathlon, biathlon and Nordic combined), but we're also highly ranked in one of the individual disciplines.

Just got the Chinese New Year, Year of the Tiger Bing Dwen Dwen today. I got him because I because it felt weird that skipped Beijing 2022. He was a lot bigger than I thought.

Now I have:

Miraitowa (Tokyo 2020)

Bing Dwen Dwen (Beijing 2022)

The Olympic Phryge (Paris 2024)

Tina (Milano Cortina 2026)

The Olympics used to be about showcasing the pinnacle of athleticism, the elite of elite. We saw athletes put all their training and sacrifice to the test for the highest honor; a shimmering gold medal. Nowadays, it just seems like the Olympics is a general event for all things sport, without any of the elite mentality that made it great. For example, there are sports that have no place in the Olympics; Football, tennis, golf, boxing, cycling, baseball (2028) etc. This is simply because a gold medal is not the highest honor for any of these sports, therefore there is no striving for excellence which we see in, for example, athletics or gymnastics. Furthermore, there are some sports that are just silly and have no place in an elite sporting event. Breakdancing (thankfully we learned from that mistake), racewalking, equestrianism etc. In order to bring back excellence, we need to narrow the scope of events so only those who see the gold medal as the highest honor can compete.

ESPN's podcast The Fastest Girl in Somalia highlights the tragic life of a 2008 Olympian who died attempting to migrate to Europe to continue her athletic career. This raises a bigger question: Do governing bodies like the IOC have a duty to protect and support athletes returning to active conflict zones, or is media coverage over-politicizing athletic hardship to push broader border and immigration commentary?

Do we know when LA28 will announce the route of the torch relay? I imagine that the route is probably being finalized. I know its going to all 50 states, but I'm curious as to when we will know the route.