Dutch pair Both & de Groot crowned Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games champions

Jara Both & Matilda de Groot of The Netherlands are the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games champions.

Both & de Groot outlasted Italy’s Margherita Coretti & Micol Lafuenti in a three-set thriller (21-16, 19-21, 15-11) during the final match at the Saly Beach West on Wednesday to claim the girls’ gold medal.

It’s the second medal this year for Both & de Groot who settled for bronze at the FIVB U18 Beach Volleyball World Championships in the Hague, Netherlands.

The Dutch second seeds finished the tournament unbeaten and only dropped one set enroute their gold medal feat; the 2-1 win in the final against the determined Italian duo of Coretti & Lafuenti who put up a spirited fight.

“It was a tough match because Italy fought so hard. We made a lot of serve mistakes which made the game more difficult for us. However, we fought really hard in the tiebreak and I’m really happy that we won today. Bronze in the Hague was good but we stepped up in this tournament and getting gold feels really nice,” said de Groot.

“We lost the second set due to our own mistakes but we were still confident. We knew if we could reduce the mistakes we could win and we did it! We were always hungry to win gold here and it’s the best way to end the year,” noted Both.

Earlier in the day, Switzerland’s Anja Gähwiler & Noemi Eugster bounced back to winning ways with a 2-0 (21-13, 21-14) sweep of China’s Ming Zhuang & Siyu Qi to claim the bronze medal and finish the tournament on a 5-2 win-loss record.

It was the second encounter between the two teams this year having met at the FIVB U18 Beach Volleyball World Championships in the Hague in July with the Chinese pair emerging 2-1 winners.

“We lost against them last time so we had a plan for today’s game and I’m glad that it worked. We had to stay strong mentally and execute our sideouts,” said Gähwiler.

“We are really happy and proud that we won today. We were so stable in various aspects of the game and this worked out for us. We are so excited and just want to tour the city and enjoy watching other sports,” added Eugster.

Click here to visit the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games Beach Volleyball event page.