History was made as Africa was selected to host the 4th Summer Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in 2022. Senegal will be the host city and this will mark the first Olympic event in history to be held on the African continent.

Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recently said that the Time for Africa is now and is the home to many successful and prominent Olympic athletes.

"Africa is a continent of youth. That is why we want to take the Youth Olympic Games 2022 to Africa and to Senegal.  There are many opportunities, and we will endeavour to deliver together, as part of a strong partnership, a visionary, responsible and inspiring Youth Games,” he says.

In one of the highlights of the games, the leading rugby sevens teams will compete against each other. Rugby sevens debuted at the 2014 Youth Olympic games. Founder and CEO of APO Group- Nicolas Pompigne-Mognard, says that the 2022 YOG games in Senegal is a great opportunity to showcase the sport in Africa.

“Rugby is the fastest growing sport on the continent. In 2002, only six African nations played rugby. Now there are 38! Out of 105 countries playing rugby competitively in the world, one third are African countries,” says Mognard.

The application was based on three sites in Senegal. The capital city, Dakar, the new city of Diamniadio and the resort of Saly. The project is tied to the country’s general development strategy titled the “Emerging Senegal” plan, which has hopes of major economic and infrastructure improvements.

The United Nations (UN) stated that Africa will have over 4.5 billion in habitants by the year 2100. Mognard added that “It is now up to international sports federations to focus on Africa. The competition between the sports will be fierce and first to come will certainly be the first served; a key factor being a significant increase in the number of participants and their income from sponsorship and television broadcasting rights,” he says.

The 2022 Summer Youth Olympic Games will be the fourth edition of the Summer Youth Olympic Games and the seventh edition of the Youth Olympic Games.

WATCH| The best of the 2014 Youth Olympic Games