Syrian Cyclist Marah Tayseer Khudair aspires to defend her title in the current Arab Games in Algeria

Syria has a lot of ambitious youth wanting with so much passion to do awesome things, but not finding the means to fulfill their dreams in so many cases due to the difficult circumstances in the country resulted from years of war that deprived Syrian youths of many opportunities to develop their skills, including in sports, yet these circumstances couldn’t stop them from following their passion.

One of these Syrian youths is the Syrian Cyclist Marah Tayseer Khudair, the Syrian female cycling team player currently participating in the 15th Arab Games in Algeria.

As the team has completed preparations to participate in the Arab Games, the “Syria Times” interviewed cyclist Marah Tayseer Khudair to highlight her participation in this tournament.

Khudair, a gold medalist in the Arab Cycling Championship 2022 in the UAE in the team race against the clock, told us that she aspires to defend her title in the current Arab Games in Algeria and to qualify for the Asian tournament.

About the Syrian women cycling team preparations for the Arab Game, Khudair said: “We received intensive training in a camp in the city of Lattakia and we chose Lattakia city due to the appropriateness of the roads for training as they are similar to racing areas. We were trained excellently by Coach Samer Wais, and now we are ready to compete for the first places, that’s why I would love to give great thanks to Coach Samer Wais for his efforts in training us and preparing us in the best way possible for the Arab Championship is Algeria.”

When asked about cycling sport in Syria, especially for women, Khudair said that “at the beginning, it wasn’t easy for the society to accept the idea of a girl driving a bicycle, and indeed we faced some difficulties and bullying attempts during training. However, these difficulties have failed to stop our ambitions to reach our goals and now the women cycling sport is witnessing good development in Syria.”

“What we wish to see in Syria concerning our sport is to find special roads for riding bicycles, allocate tracks for bicycle riders, provide modern bicycles, not to mention the fact that our game needs the provision of complete equipment,” she added.

Khudair explained to Syria Times the steps that should be taken by people who want to join the national cycling team, saying “if someone wants to join the team, first, he has to join some nearby sport club to his area where he can start training for the game, then he must participate in the republic championships and gain advanced positions. Only through these steps, he can be called by coaches of the national teams to be part of the team.”

What inspired Khudair to choose the cycling sport?

Khudair answered: “My sister, Marwa Tayseer Khudair, a former player for the Syrian national team, is the one who inspired me to choose cycling, so I had the ambition to follow on her steps and continue her career.”

Cyclist Marah Tayseer Khudair was born in 1998 in the province of Sweida. She worked hard to develop her skills through self-training and through the support of trainers.

Khudair has many achievements. She won the 2nd and 3rd place in the “Golan” race championship which was held in Sweida governorate in 2014, the 2nd place in the Republic championship that was held in Tartous governorate in 2015, the 3rd place in the Republic Championship in 2016. She also ranked 2nd in the tournament held at the beginning of 2018, and ranked first in the race of the same year in the championship that was held in “Lattakia”. She also won third and first place in the Republic Championship in 2019, and ranked first in the championship of the Republic that was held in Damascus in 2021.

Report: Leen Al Salman