Dakar (AFP) – At the entrance to a field in a suburb of Dakar, the bags open and the salt flies away, like sowing. One by one, the Swiss wrestlers enter and set off in a race behind their Senegalese guide, who continues to spread salt in their path.

Published on: 02/11/2026 - 1:42 p.m.

Between ancestral traditions and cultural mixing, six Senegalese and Swiss wrestlers competed on Sunday in Dakar, during an event organized on the sidelines of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG), which opened on Saturday in Senegal and the first Olympic event organized on African soil.

For this meeting, the Swiss wrestlers swapped their usual outfits for those of their hosts. In Switzerland, wrestling - or "Schwingen" - is practiced with thick burlap pants, worn over pants. It serves as a hold: by grabbing it, the wrestlers try to unbalance their opponent and pin them to the ground.

In Dakar, these wrestlers discovered another tradition. Senegalese wrestling, or "laamb", is practiced shirtless, with a loincloth tied around the waist. Wrestlers often add gris-gris and amulets, supposed to protect them.

To properly tie the loincloth, the Swiss wrestlers were able to count on the help of one of the stars of Senegalese wrestling, Émile François Gomis, alias "Franc", at the origin of this meeting.

Then came the ritual of mystical baths: a few drops of water poured on their bodies, in reference to the protective practices to which certain Senegalese wrestlers submit before a fight. The drums set the rhythm, traditional songs rise.

“Great fight”

It is then the turn of the Senegalese to make their entrance, draped in their “leppi”, traditional loincloth.

The first fights were between young wrestlers. With each take, the audience reacts, encourages and comes alive around the arena.

Then the crowd gets agitated. Modou Lô, icon of the Senegalese struggle and resident of the town, appears. Shouts and applause accompany his arrival. With his foals, he offers a moment of dancing to the rhythm of the percussions.

The Swiss wrestlers join the celebration, to the applause of the spectators.

Then it’s time for the sequence of confrontations. In Senegalese wrestling, tradition first ruled the roost: the Swiss wrestlers were beaten by their hosts.

“He does it all the time, it’s the first time for me. And he was stronger,” Swiss wrestler Matthieu Burger admits with a laugh to AFP, who remembers a “beautiful fight, with respect”.

The major difference in his eyes: in Swiss wrestling, we hold the opponent permanently, whereas here we can hardly grab him because the distance is greater. He says he is convinced that this experience will be useful to him in his practice.

Then the roles were reversed: the Senegalese in turn put on the jute breeches, to practice Swiss wrestling. And on this field, the guests avenged their defeats.

“Our pride”

“When we wrestled according to our culture, we beat them all. But when they came with theirs, they mastered it better,” Moussa Dioum, a Senegalese wrestler, summarized with AFP.

“We have nothing to be ashamed of because by wrestling with them, we gave them a hard time,” he continues, pleading so that the initiative continues and that young Senegalese wrestlers, often without support, can one day go to practice in Switzerland.

For "Franc", the initiator of the meeting, the objective was achieved: "That's what we wanted, to come and show Senegalese culture, our pride. Wrestling is our sport."

The mayor of the commune of Parcelles Assainies where the meeting was held, Aboubacar Djamil Sané, welcomed a meeting embodying “the richness and vitality of relations between Switzerland and Senegal”.

For him, wrestling - Senegalese with its power and rituals, Swiss with its rigor and its history spanning several centuries - is a "cultural and sporting bridge" between the two nations.

He expressed the hope that this day would be the starting point for lasting cooperation between sporting bodies, clubs and communities.

The Swiss ambassador to Senegal, Tamara Mona, said she was “very proud” to witness this moment, which allows us to see “the enthusiasm of young people for a sport, for a tradition”.

Representing the Swiss government at the YOG, Patricia Danzi, Director General of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, also a former athlete who participated in the Games, expressed her emotion. This meeting proves that “the Games are not only in the stadiums, they are also in the neighborhoods,” she noted.

© 2026 AFP

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