Baddredin WAIS

Badreddin was born in Aleppo and lived with his family as the youngest of six siblings. Following the lead of two of his brothers, he began cycling at the age of 14 and, as his talent began to show, he moved to Damascus to live with the national team and study sports science in Homs.

From 2008 to 2014, he was a national and regional success. He was the most successful junior rider in Syria, winning the Arabic Championship road race and the Syrian championships. He was also the first junior to participate in the World Championships for Syria. His biggest influence was his older brother Samer, who was by now the junior national coach.

With the outbreak of war, life became far more difficult and in 2014, he decided he had no choice but to flee and arrived in Switzerland after a long journey. He was welcomed by a friend and his family in Lausanne. He continues to train as a cyclist in Bern in Switzerland and hopes to study sports science.

He represented the IOC Refugee Olympic Team in the time trial event at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. He is now part of a semi-professional French road cycling team.