Daniel Saborío, Monterrey’s teenage swimming phenom, takes a bronze at the Youth Olympic Games in Senegal

With his sights on qualifying for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, 17-year-old Mexican swimmer Daniel Saborío Grillo took another step forward Tuesday, capturing a bronze medal in the 400-meter freestyle at the Youth Olympic Games in Senegal.

The native of Monterrey, Nuevo León, finished in a personal-best 3 minutes, 52.72 seconds, earning Mexico’s first medal in Dakar, Senegal’s capital, and its first swimming medal in the Summer Youth Olympics, now in their fourth edition.

The previous three were held in Singapore in 2010, Nanjing, China, in 2014, and Buenos Aires in 2018.

The Youth Olympics are a smaller, age-restricted counterpart to the Olympics. The current 14-day competition opened Saturday and continues through Nov. 13 in Dakar, nearby Diamniadio and the coastal resort of Saly.

Saborío was one of Mexico’s two flag bearers at the opening ceremony at the Diamniadio Olympic Stadium, which drew tens of thousands of spectators, according to reports.

The other was Ariadna Yarey Chávez Medina, a 17-year-old judo competitor from Tulum, Quintana Roo. Chávez lost her opening bout, a quarterfinal, to Russia’s Anastasiia Dobrovolskaia on Tuesday.

The competition has brought together about 2,700 athletes ages 14 to 17, with 153 medal events across 25 sports.

Mexico — which has sent 62 athletes to compete in 19 sports — captured a second bronze Tuesday when its mixed-gender Baseball5 team defeated Kenya two games to one in the third-place series. Making its Youth Olympic debut, Baseball5 is a 5-on-5 game played without bats or gloves; batters hit a rubber ball with their bare hands.

Saborío arrived in Senegal three months after winning two gold and two silver medals at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Santo Domingo.

In his first event in Dakar, he finished fifth in the 100-meter freestyle. He also is scheduled to swim the 200 freestyle Friday. 

Saborío trains while attending high school at Monterrey’s Tecnológico de Monterrey.  His longer-term plans include the 2027 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, and a bid to qualify for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, Diario de México reported.

However, in last year’s junior world championships in Romania, Saborío did not finish among the top 20 in his individual events.

These Games in Dakar were originally scheduled for 2022, but were postponed four years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

They are the first Olympic Games held in Africa. 

Beyond competition, athletes must complete an education program covering anti-doping, mental health, injury prevention and preparation for life after sports.

With reports from Diario de México, El Universal, Associated Press, UDG TV and Claro Sports