Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s heartfelt recollections: “But that night, I knew nothing about any of it”

Ahead of the Youth Olympic Games, Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye recalled his first sporting memory, from Ndiaganiao in August 1992. At age 12, he watched the Barcelona Games with village children on a small black-and-white television and saw Carl Lewis and Mike Powell compete in the long jump. He knew neither athlete’s name nor that Powell had taken the world record from Lewis the previous year, but remembers feeling that something significant was happening and that he was part of it.