Dominic Lobalu was recently granted permission by World Athletics to represent Switzerland in competition, but he was only cleared to compete in Paris as part of the Refugee Olympic Team.
“I don’t feel bad when people tell me that I have no home country. It is true that I am a refugee,” Dominic Lobalu says in the opening seconds of To Chase a Dream, a new short film about how the South Sudan-born athlete recently became a breakout middle and long-distance runner and is chasing an Olympic gold.
The film, released by Swiss sportswear brand On, comes out two days before Lobalu runs in the men’s 5,000m Olympics final, an event that he almost didn’t qualify for — not because he wasn’t fast enough. Coming into the Paris Olympics, Lobalu, competing for the Athletes Refugee Team and touted as one of the most intriguing prospects to win a medal in this event, was almost subject to an anticlimactic exit after finishing 15th in one of the men’s 5,000m heats. This was due to a collision incident that led to Lobalu and several runners falling on the track.
After reviewing clips from the incident, Lobalu was one of four runners in the heat awarded a place in Saturday’s final race. He will look to add to the medal tally of the Refugee Olympic Team, and if possible, get an upgrade on the historic bronze medal Cameroon-born boxer Cindy Ngamba won earlier in the games.
Of more personal consequence is the fact that Lobalu has had to fight his way into contending for the greatest honors in middle and long-distance running, and winning an Olympic medal would be beyond his wildest dreams. Two months ago, at the European Athletics Championships in Rome, he won the 10,000m gold medal, as well as the bronze medal in the 5,000m race. Both medals were won while he wore the colors and flew the flag of Switzerland, his now-adopted country where he sought asylum five years ago.
At the European Athletics Championships in Rome, Dominic Lobalu won the 10,000m gold medal and the 5,000m bronze medal.
Photo courtesy of On.
Lobalu was born amidst a civil war and grew up in Southeast Sudan. Until he fled to a refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya, after soldiers attacked the small village where he lived with his parents. He was nine years old at the time and got separated from his parents while they were fleeing. It was in Kakuma that his talent for running was discovered and, just before he turned 19, he ran in the heats of the 1,500m at the World Championships in London.
In 2019, he traveled with the Athlete Refugee Team to Geneva, Switzerland, to compete in a 10,000m race. Out of desperation, he decided to stay in Switzerland and apply for asylum, a decision that raised questions about his eligibility to compete for the refugee team. Consequently, he was barred from competing at the last Olympics held in Tokyo.
In To Chase a Dream, we are given a window into Lobalu acclimatizing to being able to compete for Switzerland. In 2022, Lobalu was given a short-term residency by the Swiss government, a decision he followed with a win in the 3,000m event at the BAUHAUS-galan in Stockholm, Sweden while representing the Athlete Refuge Team. Last year, World Athletics granted him eligibility to represent Switzerland in races from 2026, a date that was later brought forward to May this year, and enabled him to win medals in the European Championships.
However, he was barred from representing Switzerland in Paris because he doesn’t hold a Swiss passport. Lobalu can only apply to be a permanent resident in 2031. Without a country to compete for, he accepted the invitation to be part of the Olympic Refugee Team.
Lobalu’s choice to represent Switzerland on the world stage has sparked conversations about national identity and the possibilities for refugee athletes who can’t go back to their home countries. It inspired The Right to Race, a 30-minute documentary about Lobalu’s journey, which was released at last year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity on World Refugee Day.
In To Chase a Dream, Lobalu’s readiness to become a world-renowned runner is brought into sharper focus. “The heart is like the engine of the body,” he says in the film. “I use my heart and my feelings. I can control my body from there. The pain that I have, the guy who is in front of me, he also has that same pain. So, why should I allow them to go and I slow down?”
The doc shows how Lobalu has embraced his new surroundings, in relation to his chances of becoming a great athlete. Freed of many of the difficulties that came with living as a refugee, his focus is now singular. At the top of the film, Lobalu says, “When I put on my shoes and run, there’s one thing I think about: How is my story going to end?” Regardless of how he fares in Saturday’s 5,000m Olympics final, Lobalu’s legacy is just starting.
Watch To Chase a Dream below.
'Dominic Lobalu: To Chase a Dream'
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