Ellen Martini, a 16-year-old archer from Corinda will be part of Olympic history later this year when she represents Australia at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games, the first Olympic event to be staged on the African continent.
Martini has been selected as one of Australia’s two recurve archers for the Games in Senegal, where young athletes from around the world will compete from 31 October to 13 November.
Personal-best trial performance before Dakar selection
The archer produced some of the best competition shooting of her career at the Youth Olympic trials, opening with a national-record-equalling score of 663 before following up with a 659 on the second day.
She then won all six of her matches that afternoon to finish the trials with 11 wins from 12 matches. She described the event as her best competition shooting and one of the most enjoyable competitions she had attended.
Still processing the fact that she would compete at the Youth Olympic Games later in the year, Martini said the selection was the culmination of years of work and represented an opportunity her younger self would have struggled to imagine.
She also expressed gratitude for what her archery journey had taught her and described selection for Dakar as a rare opportunity to compete at the highest level of youth sport.
An Australian Sports Foundation fundraising page has been established under Martini’s name for her international archery campaign in 2026.
Corinda teenager heads to Africa’s first Olympic event
As the host of the fourth Summer Youth Olympic Games, Senegal will make history by bringing the Olympic movement to African soil for the very first time.
The Games will feature 35 sports under a new Youth Olympic sports programme. Twenty-five sports will form the competitive programme, while another 10 will be included in a mobilisation programme intended to encourage young people in Senegal and the wider region to experience and participate in those sports.
Archery is among the 25 competitive sports. Australia will compete across 16 sports, including archery, badminton, beach volleyball, boxing, road cycling, equestrian, fencing, artistic gymnastics, judo, coastal beach sprint rowing, rugby sevens, sailing, skateboarding, table tennis, taekwondo and triathlon.
The Australian Olympic Committee has announced a team of 41 athletes across those 16 sports. Three-time Olympian and Olympic champion Kenny Wallace will lead the Australian Youth Olympic Team as Chef de Mission.
Wallace has said representing Australia at the Youth Olympics is a major honour and an experience the athletes are likely to remember throughout their lives. He said that for many athletes it would be their first experience of representing Australia at a major multi-sport Games.
Martini’s women’s recurve competition will run from 6 to 9 November. She will then join Penna for the mixed team event on 10 November in Diamniadio, Dakar.
Penna will contest the corresponding men’s competition before the pair combine for Australia. He has said his goals are to produce his best shooting, represent Australia with pride and enjoy the experience.
Dakar team emerges six years before Brisbane 2032
Dakar 2026 comes six years before Brisbane hosts the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Martini will be in her early 20s when the Olympics are held in her home city, although she has not identified Brisbane 2032 as a goal.
Wallace, however, has pointed to both Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032 as possible future destinations for athletes emerging through this Youth Olympic programme.
