Iran names Youth Olympic delegation after child killed in US strike on Minab school

Iran’s teenage athletes heading to the 2026 Dakar Youth Olympics will carry the memory of Makan Nasiri, a schoolboy killed in a deadly US strike on a school in Iran’s southern city of Minab.

Iran’s National Olympic Committee said on Friday that the country’s delegation to the 2026 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegl, will compete under the symbolic title “From Makan to Dakar,” honoring martyred Iranian teenager Makan Nasiri.

The 2026 Youth Olympics in Dakar, Senegal, will bring together athletes under the age of 17 from across the globe.

The naming initiative is intended to send a clear message to the international community that Iranian youth carry not only sporting ambitions, but also the memory of innocent young lives lost to violence and aggression.

The statement was referring to the school massacre that occurred on the first day of US-Israeli aggression on Iran, when a US military attack using Tomahawk missiles struck Shajare Tayyebe Elementary school in the city of Minab, killing 168 people, most of them children.

Seven-year-old Makan was the only victim whose tiny body was never found.

“From Makan to Dakar is no longer just a title,” the committee said.

“It is the story of a teenager whose journey remained unfinished, but whose name will continue alongside Iran’s young athletes at the world’s biggest sporting stage.”

Members of the delegation, it added, “will not only represent the country’s sports, but also narrate the story of a generation that chose to stand firm and move forward despite pain and loss.”

The 2026 Summer Youth Olympics will be held in Dakar from October 31 to November 13, 2026. The event will mark the first International Olympic Committee event hosted in Africa.

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