US takes skateboarding diplomacy to Senegal, connecting youth ambition to Olympic dreams

By Mutiu Olawuyi

DAKAR, Senegal — A weeklong U.S.-Senegal skateboarding exchange concluded Saturday, Sept. 12, at Patte-d’Oie Skate Park, bringing American athletes, Senegalese coaches and young skaters together in a sports diplomacy initiative designed to build skills, cultural connections and longer-term opportunities for youth.

Organized by the U.S. Embassy in Senegal in partnership with the Senegalese Skateboard Federation, the program featured U.S. State Department Sports Envoys Dr. Neftalie Williams, the first U.S. Sports Envoy for Skateboarding, and Olympic skateboarder Minna Stess.

The initiative comes as Senegal prepares to host the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games, the first Olympic Games to be held on African soil. For organizers, however, the exchange was about more than preparing athletes for competition. It demonstrated how sport can create relationships between young people and strengthen people-to-people ties between the United States and Senegal.

At the closing ceremony, U.S. Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Jennifer Davis Paguada said the embassy intends to build on the partnership beyond the weeklong program.

“We are always looking for new opportunities to partner with our Senegalese counterparts, who are incredible partners,” Paguada said. “We will continue to look for those opportunities around the Youth Olympic Games.”

She also announced plans for another dimension of cultural exchange involving American youth.

“We will also bring a delegation of American youth here, which is another great opportunity for cultural exchange, sharing their passion for sport and building bridges between our two countries,” she said.

From Dakar to Los Angeles

Paguada connected the exchange to both Dakar 2026 and the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, where skateboarding will again provide an international stage for elite athletes.

“The Youth Olympics are a wonderful opportunity to share that passion and love of sport, and to build cultural connections between countries,” she said.

She added that the embassy hopes some of the young people who participated in the Dakar program could eventually reach the Olympic stage.

“Hopefully, we’ll see some of these young people competing in Los Angeles in 2028,” Paguada said.

For Williams, his first visit to Senegal offered an opportunity to see how much potential already exists within the country’s skateboarding community.

“The experience has been absolutely wonderful,” Williams said. “The people have been fantastic, and all the coaches have been so eager to learn, as have all the students.”

He said participants arrived with different levels of experience, from established young skaters to beginners discovering the sport for the first time.

Williams also sought to make skateboarding accessible to young people who may initially be intimidated by it.

“There’s no reason to be afraid of skateboarding,” he said. “What skateboarding gives you is a sense of freedom, and everyone should have the time and space to experience that.”

Learning across a language barrier

Stess, who competed at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, said working with a large group of Senegalese children was a learning experience for her as well.

“Everyone has been super eager to learn, and I’ve been lucky enough to actually help them,” Stess said. “Watching them get excited about learning to roll and to skate made me feel really good.”

Language initially presented a challenge, since Stess does not speak French. But translators helped bridge the gap between technical skateboarding instruction and the young participants.

“We had excellent translators with us, so they were able to carry my skateboarding techniques and terminology into their own language,” she said. “They learned how to skate, and I got to help them with tricks.”

The exchange illustrates the restorative potential of sports diplomacy: international programs can provide young people with practical skills while creating relationships that continue after the visiting delegation leaves.

For Senegalese skateboarding, the immediate opportunity is Dakar 2026. The longer-term possibility is a stronger local sporting ecosystem in which young athletes have access to coaching, mentorship and international pathways.

The closing ceremony therefore marked less an ending than a starting point, with the skate park serving as a meeting place where athletic development, cultural exchange and diplomatic partnership converged.