TEHRAN - Hamid Azizi, head of Iran’s delegation at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games, has expressed satisfaction with the overall performance of the country’s athletes, while stressing that comparing Iran’s final standing with its previous appearance at Buenos Aires 2018 would not be a fair assessment.
Iran finished 38th in the medal table at Dakar 2026, collecting one gold, four silver and three bronze medals. The result marked a significant drop from the 2018 edition in Buenos Aires, where the Iranian delegation secured seven gold medals and finished seventh overall.
However, Azizi believes several factors must be taken into consideration when evaluating the two campaigns.
Iran competed in Dakar with 29 athletes across 14 sports, compared with 49 athletes at the previous edition. The delegation included a 10-member girls’ futsal team, while athletes also represented the country in beach volleyball, badminton, beach wrestling, taekwondo, fencing, athletics, triathlon, judo and swimming.
Speaking exclusively to Tehran Times, Azizi highlighted the achievements of the Iranian athletes and pointed to several historic milestones.
"Overall, we returned home with 17 medals. The girls’ futsal team won bronze medal, beach wrestling secured one silver and one bronze, taekwondo claimed one gold and one silver, judo won a silver medal, wushu earned a bronze, and swimming also secured a silver.
