Where to find bearers of hope

For the third time, the young girl smashes the man, who weighs more than twice as much, onto his back. Applause. On stage at the TEDx Empowerment through Education event, 12-year-old Cecilia Riedl lifts her arms up in the air triumphantly, beaming. She is one of three inspiring young people who will be able to tell their story in front of an audience here on 10 May 2023. Cilia's story? She has a dream: to compete in judo at the 2028 Paralympic Games in Los Angeles. The young judoka doesn't see the spell she has over the audience. Because Cilia is almost blind. She bows and leaves the stage.

Maxime Toussaint, podcast producer at the Lëtzebuerger Journal, slips a flyer about the event into his jacket pocket, a reminder that there are more stories like this – and that they need to be told. But he doesn't need a reminder, because he can't get the idea out of his head: the young girl's motivation deserves to be heard by more people. And the people who can be inspired by her deserve to hear it. But 2028 is a long way off… But 2024? That's not just a leap in time, but also geographically! The concept: a podcast in which hopeful Cilia Luxembourg accompanies Paralympic athletes during their preparations. And we are part of it!

But the project is probably a little too big for one person, so Maxime calls his colleague Misch Pautsch, who could also give the project a journalistic twist. It doesn't take long to convince him. Five months later, we have the first interviews, which will take up a good part of the coming year. In them, they get to know Katrin Kohl, Philippe Hein, Matteo Scuto, Joël Adams and Tom Habscheid, who give Cilia, Maxime and Misch deep insights into their lives.

With its 7 to 8 episodes, the podcast "D'Hoffnungsdréier" is just a snippet of the emotions, ups and downs that their sport has had in store for them this year. After so much time and so many conversations, with this project we are not only bringing a part of ourselves into the world, but hopefully also a spark of the fire that blazed in Cilia on stage.

You can listen to the first episode "Paralympics zu Lëtzebuerg" on Journal.lu and Spotify on 19 July. New episodes will follow every week, so that when the Paralympics begin, you will know exactly who these athletes are who are fighting for their dream.

… hopefully! Because the slots are not yet locked in. So stay tuned with us until then, because if one of the athletes qualifies, we'll bring you the last two episodes straight from Paris! Join the journey!