HKBU deploys environmental monitoring at Dakar Youth Olympic Games
Hong Kong Baptist University has launched an environmental research project at the 2026 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal, deploying about 20 monitoring stations across nine venue clusters to assess conditions and protect athletes' health, safety and performance.
Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) is conducting environmental research at the 2026 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal, to assess conditions at competition venues and help protect athletes’ health, safety and performance.
The project, led by Yannis Pitsiladis, director of HKBU’s Centre for Exercise Science and Medicine, runs from 31 October to 13 November. The university said it is the only academic team from Asia carrying out scientific research at the Games.
The team has deployed about 20 monitoring stations across nine main venue clusters, covering all 25 sports, including Baseball5, Wushu Taolu and skateboarding. The stations measure local conditions and transmit readings in real time to a digital research platform. By comparing data between venues and different locations within each site, researchers aim to identify the environmental stressors athletes face during training and competition.
At Complexe Tour de l’Œuf, for example, the team installed three stations in distinct microclimates: one exposed to direct sunlight, one in a shaded area, and one in the swimming pool. The stations will help researchers examine localised variations in temperature and humidity and inform venue-specific environmental risk assessments.
The project builds on the team’s monitoring work at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games. Christopher Papamichalopoulos, a PhD researcher at HKBU and former alpine skier who represented Cyprus at the Olympics, said the project applied an athlete’s focus on precision to safety. “By understanding how the body responds to heat and extreme conditions in which athletes compete, as well as the environmental stressors which athletes face, we aim to inform safety protocols that extend beyond any single athlete, venue, or event,” he said.
Feng Letian, a research assistant at Beijing Normal-Hong Kong Baptist University, said taking part in a major international sporting event was a source of pride. Working with the team offered a valuable learning opportunity and a chance to help build a safer, more innovative future for sport, Feng said. Pitsiladis said the project would establish a lasting research framework to support potential applications at future major sporting events, including the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
The project is funded by the Guangdong–Hong Kong Universities “1+1+1” Joint Research Collaboration Scheme, which aims to generate research findings, validate monitoring technologies, and train young scientists.
