Dream Program 2023 Korea: A Global Winter Sports Experience for Pakistani Athletes
The Dream Program is a global winter‑sports training and cultural‑exchange initiative, originally started by the legacy organizers of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics. It aims to bring together youths — often from countries with limited winter‑sports exposure — and introduce them to skiing, snowboarding, ice skating, and other snow/ice disciplines under expert coaching, while also offering cultural exchange opportunities.
In 2023, the Winter Sports Federation Pakistan decided to send Pakistani athletes — along with a senior coach — to participate in Dream Program 2023. As per WSFP’s own announcement, this opportunity aimed to provide advanced training, exposure to global coaching standards, and cross‑cultural sports exchange. The hope: to use this as a stepping stone to groom promising Pakistani youth into competitive winter‑sports athletes on an international level.
For those Pakistani athletes who attended Dream Program 2023, the journey doesn’t end on return. The hope is that they will:
- Use their training to perform better in national & international events.
- Share their experience with other aspiring athletes back home — acting as ambassadors and mentors.
- Encourage the expansion of winter‑sports infrastructure, coaching, and grassroots programmes in regions like Gilgit‑Baltistan, Azad Kashmir, and Chitral.
With support from WSFP and consistent exposure like Dream Program, Pakistani winter‑sports could gradually transition from niche curiosity to a growing movement — giving talented youth a path to shine on snowy tracks, both at home and abroad.
Dream Program 2023 offered a golden opportunity: for Pakistani youth to step into a world of snow, sport, and global friendship. With backing from WSFP, these young athletes — perhaps from remote valleys — got a chance few ever imagined. If built upon thoughtfully, this experience could mark an important milestone toward growing a robust culture of winter sports in Pakistan.