The Olympics are the biggest sporting event in the world and every athlete’s dream. “Being part of it is everything.” Thousands of talented athletes worldwide determinedly train for this dream. Their lives are in many ways characterized by renunciation. A career in high-performance sports demands endurance, ambition, will power, and the ability to deal with pain. But what does sport offer these athletes back?
THE NORM (The Olympic Standards) is a movie about elite athletes, but it isn’t a sports movie. Instead, it focuses on the people and their values. It seeks to find out about the drive behind their athletic excellence, how their Olympic dream was formed, and what role it plays in their daily lives. THE NORM is following German elite athletes behind the scenes – up close and in their immediate environments.
THE NORM seeks to make the reality as well as the athletes’ personal drama of qualifying for the Olympics, which is undoubtedly one of the hardest selection processes in the world, emotionally tangible to the viewer. To that end, we are accompanying very different athletes, who come from different disciplines and are at very different stages of their lives.
THE NORM is more than just a movie about the Olympics. It’s a movie about families, loneliness, trust, setbacks, unfinished business and dreams.