Small metal objects traded on lanyards and bags have sparked a massive trading culture at the Dakar Youth Olympic Games, rfi.fr reported.
Collectors and volunteers are swapping the badges across venues like the Egg Tower complex and the Olympic Village. The tradition traces its roots back to the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896, where simple cloth or cardboard pins helped differentiate athletes and judges.
The Mongolian Hunt
Daniel, a photographer for the Mexican Olympic Committee, spotted a Mongolian flag in the village and made tracking down its matching badge a priority near the Olympic swimming pool. He secured the item during the opening ceremony after setting his sights on it.
Australia, Japan, and several African nations remain on his exchange list. These metal tokens, which represent delegations, events, or causes, give participants a direct reason to approach strangers and start conversations.
Decades of Collecting
Inside the Egg Tower complex, which hosts swimming, skateboarding, baseball5, and 3×3 basketball, collectors display vastly different scales of passion. Daniel Pressburger, a Los Angeles native, began collecting in 1984 during his home city’s Olympic Games.
Forty-two years and 16 Olympic editions later, he brought about 5,000 pieces to trade or give away out of an estimated total collection of 150,000 pins. His friend Brad, a 70-year-old Californian attending his 14th Games but his first Youth Olympics, traveled to Africa for the first time primarily to acquire new pieces for his roughly 10,000-strong collection.
First-Time Participants Collect Memorabilia from Veterans
First-time participants match the veterans in enthusiasm. Cheikh Guèye, a local volunteer, earned his first badge bearing an “America 86” inscription after helping an American visitor.
Victor Diouf received a special item from a Rwanda baseball5 player who handed it over without demanding a trade. Nunez Tendeng collected items from Team Korea and New Zealand swimmer Ariel Muchirahondo, who claimed two gold medals and one silver.
Memories Beyond the Games
Khadija gathered roughly ten pieces for her nephews who could not secure tickets to the Egg Tower events. Lucie Jouannet, an exchange student from Paris who started her collection at the 2024 Paris Olympics, renewed her swapping efforts in Dakar after leaving her main credential behind in France.
The exchanges frequently extend beyond the metal objects themselves into lasting friendships forged at local concerts and venues. Organizers and participants continue to track trades across the city as the Youth Olympic Games unfold.
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