Senegalese female wrestler wins the nation’s first Olympic gold at Dakar Youth Games

SALY, Senegal (AP) — Senegal won its first ever gold medal at an Olympic event on Saturday in the country's national sport, beach wrestling.

Elisabeth Diatta, 16, beat Japanese opponent Reisa Kojima at the Youth Olympic Games with a spectacular takedown in the final of the women's 55-kilogram division in front of home fans.

“I'm so happy to have made history for Senegal,” Diatta said.

Beach wrestling made its Olympic debut at the Youth Olympic Games, which are taking place in the Senegalese capital Dakar and nearby towns Diamniadio and Saly. Athletes are between 14 and 17.

Wrestling is practiced on the many beaches of the coastal West African nation and wrestlers are celebrated like rock stars. The local variation of wrestling, called laamb in Wolof, one of the national languages, has been part of village life for centuries.

Senegalese wrestle for entertainment or to celebrate special occasions. The professional version of the sport draws thousands to stadiums and can be a catapult to wealth and fame.

In the beach town of Saly, where the competition took place, Senegal's wrestlers brought some of laamb's traditions to the Olympic stage — dancing after every victory — while Senegalese fans cheered on their team to the sound of traditional sabar drums.

Senegalese wrestling is male dominated but in the southern Casamance region, home to the Jola ethnic group, women traditionally wrestle alongside men.

Diatta, who is from Casamance, told The Associated Press after her gold medal win she wants "Senegalese girls to believe in themselves, and keep wrestling, because wrestling is not just for men.”

The fact that Senegal’s first ever gold medal was won by a woman wrestler was a potent symbol, said her coach Isabelle Sambu, who is a two-time Olympian and nine-time African wrestling champion.

“We have opened the door for everyone, for all the disciplines that remain, that have not yet competed," Sambu said. “May the medals fall for Senegal.”

Just an hour after Diatta's triumph, compatriot Maguette Diop, also 16, secured Senegal’s second wrestling gold after defeating Azerbaijan’s Nihad Suleymanli in the men’s 80-kilogram final.

See full AP coverage of African sports here

Senegal fans support their wrestler Maguette Diop during beach wrestling competition at the Youth Olympics in Saly, Senegal, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Sylvain Cherkaoui)

Ukraine's wrestler Dmytro Holovenko, right, and Senegal's Maguette Diop compete in a men's 80 kg beach wrestling match at the Youth Olympics in Saly, Senegal, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Sylvain Cherkaoui)

Senegal's Elisabeth Diatta, right, competes against Ecuador's Xiomara Meza in a women's 55kg beach wrestling match at the Youth Olympic Games in Saly, Senegal, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Sylvain Cherkaoui)

Senegal's Maguette Diop celebrates after winning gold medal in a men's 80 kg beach wrestling final match at the Youth Olympics in Saly, Senegal, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Sylvain Cherkaoui)

Senegalese coach and former olympian Isabelle Sambu, center, celebrate's Senegal's Elisabeth Diatta's gold medal in the women's 55 kg beach wrestling finals at the Youth Olympics in Saly, Senegal, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Sylvain Cherkaoui)

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Democrat Scott Colom hasn't won Mississippi’s U.S. Senate race, but the local prosecutor was welcomed as a historic figure Friday as he strolled through the Farish Street business district where civil rights leaders once organized.

“It’s so wonderful! It’s so wonderful to have Scott Colom as our representative,” said Maati Jone Primm, who owns Marshall’s Music & Bookstore in Jackson.

The state is still tallying ballots that could make Colom the first Black senator from this Deep South state since post-Civil War Reconstruction. The possibility of Colom defeating Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith puts many Black voters somewhere between cautious optimism and outright celebration in a state where nearly 40% of the population is Black but the top representation for generations has been white.

“I’m so glad we are at the point where we are,” said Sorie Tarawally, a 76-year-old attorney who has long known Colom’s father. He called the 43-year-old candidate “the man, our messiah, our savior.”

The contest remains too early for The Associated Press to call, and Colom’s historic bid will hinge on a tedious process playing out in elections offices across Mississippi’s 82 counties. Local officials are receiving and examining absentee and provisional ballots, called affidavit ballots, before deadlines next week. Volunteers and lawyers representing each campaign look on in anticipation of potential litigation.

“We’re going to make sure everything is followed according to the law, and I have confidence in those local officials,” Colom said. “They’re doing their jobs. Got to be patient with them.”

Colom said ballots tallied since Tuesday's election lean in his favor, and he chided Hyde-Smith for not explaining her strategy going forward.

“She’s still our senator. Where is she? Why is she not doing any interviews?” Colom asked. “Why can’t she explain what her pathway to success is?"

Hyde-Smith has not appeared publicly since election night, when she essentially declared victory despite a razor-thin margin with ballots still uncounted.

"We are not backing down," she posted Friday on social media. “This election is not over. Our team is working across Mississippi to monitor the remaining ballots and protect the integrity of the process. We will see this through to the very end!”

Maryland Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, the first Democratic senator to campaign with Colom this year, said in an interview that she came away from her trip knowing that voters “would be really energized by a candidate like Scott.” But Alsobrooks, who is her state’s first Black senator, added that “the takeaway I had when I visited Mississippi was that there was a belief problem” after years of defeats.

“They now know that their vote matters,” she said.

The pool of outstanding ballots includes absentee ballots, which can be counted in Mississippi as long as they are received by Tuesday, five business days after the election. The rest are affidavit ballots, which are cast at the polls when there's a glitch: Perhaps the person's name was not on the rolls or the person did not have proper identification, or a poll worker determined the person's identification did not precisely match the name on the list.

Citizens who had identification issues have until Tuesday to address those matters in person at their local elections office. For people who were not on a precinct’s rolls, local officials can verify a person's status using previous records and information on the affidavit that person filed when filling out a ballot. That person typically has no responsibility to come to a local elections office; ballot status can be found on the Mississippi secretary of state’s office website.

Counties have until Friday to certify complete results to the secretary of state.

Mississippi law has no provision for a statewide recount. Campaigns could seek court orders, usually county by county, seeking to examine ballots.

Democrats already have won control of the Senate, so the result in Mississippi would not change the balance of power in Washington.

But it would mark a seismic shift in the state, where white conservatives have dominated the Statehouse and congressional delegation for nearly 150 years. Through Jim Crow segregation and the Civil Rights era, those leaders were nearly all Democrats. After the Civil Rights Movement, they overwhelmingly shifted to Republicans. For Black Mississippians, the result was the same: a lack of proportional representation at the top levels of state government and in Washington.

Colom was initially viewed as a long shot, and it wasn't until late October that Senate Democrats' top campaign group started spending on advertising to support him. But the midterms revealed a broad backlash against redistricting efforts in the South that were aimed at boosting Republicans and, by extension, reducing Black representation.

Primm's bookstore, where Colom visited on Friday, opened in the 1930s and is recognized as the oldest Black-owned bookstore in the U.S.

She said the Farish Street neighborhood still represents Black Mississippians’ “first migration, from the plantation to the city.” Having Colom there as a potential senator “makes us so proud, and it gives us someone to aspire to. Our youth need to see the possibilities for their lives, and we do when we see our next senator from Mississippi.”

As he campaigned, Colom emphasized that he can represent all Mississippians, and he said President Donald Trump’s policies — the war with Iran and tariffs, especially — cut across all demographic lines. He even celebrated the extended ballot counting process as a benefit to the state's 2.95 million residents.

“I’m so glad the national press is getting to see the beauty of our state,” he said.

But Colom and his Black supporters also have never ignored the significance of his candidacy as a Black man.

“We are motivated by the gross inequalities we have seen in society and how only one side seems to benefit,” said Tarawally, who was born in Sierra Leone and arrived in the Deep South to attend law school at the University of Mississippi. “So, we want a person who speaks to our benefit.”

Colom ended his campaign with an ad set at the Jackson home of Medgar Evers, the civil rights leader who was gunned down in 1963 in his own driveway, dying in front of his wife and children.

“It’s a powerful reminder of the sacrifice to gain the ballot, and nobody sacrificed more than Medgar Evers and his family,” Colom said Friday.

“What was important to me about that ad is we didn’t ask people to vote for me. We just talked about the sacrifice, talked about the story,” he continued. “We just wanted that to be the closing ad because I wanted that to be the last message that the people of Mississippi heard.”

U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., addresses supporters at her victory party in Flowood, Miss., Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. (Rogelio V. Solis/Mississippi Free Press via AP)

Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Scott Colom speaks to reporters during a campaign stop at record and comic store OffBeat, Friday, Nov. 6, 2026, in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)

Bags of ballots are stored at the Hinds County Election Commission as the U.S. Senate race between Democratic candidate Scott Colom and incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith has not yet been called, Friday, Nov. 6, 2026, in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)

Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Scott Colom, left, greets resident Peggie Smith during a campaign event at the Tougaloo Senior Citizens Center, Friday, Nov. 6, 2026, in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)

Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Scott Colom, right, talks with owner Maati Jone Primm during a campaign stop at Marshall's Music and Book Store, which is recognized as the oldest Black-owned bookstore in the U.S., Friday, Nov. 6, 2026, in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)