A New Olympic Athlete Documentary Showcases the Olympic Spirit
We Dare To Dream (2023)
A Quick Film Review
Do you need an inspiring movie this holiday season? The aptly-named We Dare to Dream has been thankfully made available on streaming service Peacock, offering a just-intimate-enough look at the premise of the International Olympic Committee's Refugee Team through select featured athletes.
A Quick Film Review
Do you need an inspiring movie this holiday season? The aptly-named We Dare to Dream has been thankfully made available on streaming service Peacock, offering a just-intimate-enough look at the premise of the International Olympic Committee's Refugee Team through select featured athletes.
Responding to the increasing global refugee crisis, the IOC created the Refugee Team program to debut at Rio 2016 as a pathway to support elite athletes whose careers may have otherwise been thwarted by their stateless status.
From a team of 10 at those Rio Games, the program expanded to 29 at Tokyo 2020, with an even larger pool of candidates aiming for Paris 2024. Both the IOC's commitment to the program, and the need for it, are apparent.
We Dare to Dream takes a look at four of those Tokyo 2020 Olympians - weightlifter Cyrille Tchachet II, runner Anjelina Nadai Lohalith, canoeist Saied Fazloula, and taekwondo star Kimia Alizadeh. Each has their own unique, dramatic path to how they found themselves as a refugee, with their elite experience - Tchachet a Commonwealth Games competitor, Fazloula an Asian Games medalist, and Alizadeh a Rio 2016 medalist - underscoring the quality of athletes' abilities found on the team and the potential tragedy for their Olympic dreams to not have an outlet were it not for the Refugee Team pathway. Getting to know each backstory is the heart of We Dare to Dream, and powers one's attention as they navigate qualification, the Covid-19-enhanced circumstances of the Tokyo Games, and, ultimately, Olympic competition.
For added perspective, we also get to briefly know another taekwondo athlete, Wael Fawaz Al-Farraj, whose dashed hopes for Tokyo 2020 selection exemplify the greater number of refugee athletes not on the final team - but who persevere. "Hope is constant, and dreams must continue", offers Fawaz Al-Farraj as attention eventually turns to Paris 2024.
Directing the documentary is Waad Al-Kateab, whose own experiences as a refugee herself likely enhanced the sensitive and empathetic touch the film has with its athletes. As she knows well, "we all deserve to live, dream, and fight in a new way".
We Dare to Dream provides a welcome look at Olympic athlete stories too-often neglected amidst the common nationalistic fervor that can accompany the Games - individuals who personify the drive to compete and succeed at their chosen sport, and even despite the luxury and privilege of national system support. Is that not Olympic spirit?
From a team of 10 at those Rio Games, the program expanded to 29 at Tokyo 2020, with an even larger pool of candidates aiming for Paris 2024. Both the IOC's commitment to the program, and the need for it, are apparent.
We Dare to Dream takes a look at four of those Tokyo 2020 Olympians - weightlifter Cyrille Tchachet II, runner Anjelina Nadai Lohalith, canoeist Saied Fazloula, and taekwondo star Kimia Alizadeh. Each has their own unique, dramatic path to how they found themselves as a refugee, with their elite experience - Tchachet a Commonwealth Games competitor, Fazloula an Asian Games medalist, and Alizadeh a Rio 2016 medalist - underscoring the quality of athletes' abilities found on the team and the potential tragedy for their Olympic dreams to not have an outlet were it not for the Refugee Team pathway. Getting to know each backstory is the heart of We Dare to Dream, and powers one's attention as they navigate qualification, the Covid-19-enhanced circumstances of the Tokyo Games, and, ultimately, Olympic competition.
For added perspective, we also get to briefly know another taekwondo athlete, Wael Fawaz Al-Farraj, whose dashed hopes for Tokyo 2020 selection exemplify the greater number of refugee athletes not on the final team - but who persevere. "Hope is constant, and dreams must continue", offers Fawaz Al-Farraj as attention eventually turns to Paris 2024.
Directing the documentary is Waad Al-Kateab, whose own experiences as a refugee herself likely enhanced the sensitive and empathetic touch the film has with its athletes. As she knows well, "we all deserve to live, dream, and fight in a new way".
We Dare to Dream provides a welcome look at Olympic athlete stories too-often neglected amidst the common nationalistic fervor that can accompany the Games - individuals who personify the drive to compete and succeed at their chosen sport, and even despite the luxury and privilege of national system support. Is that not Olympic spirit?
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