A leading figure in handbike racing, Riadh Tarsim is a true champion who has racked up a string of victories: a dozen times World and French champion in the H3 category road race (paraplegia without voluntary trunk mobility), silver medal at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games...
Now aged 51, he is stronger than ever and has one ambition: to win a medal at the Paris Games and inspire everyone to take up sport!
Riadh Tarsim is tireless. As he himself explains, the dynamic fifty-year-old does three things in life: he is a father, a company director and a top-level athlete.
After a skiing accident that left him without the use of his legs, he swapped the judo and boxing he practised so assiduously for handi-basketball at first, before turning to handbikes.
It was an encounter that changed his life, and Riadh quickly became a great champion.
"This passion has been driving me for more than 15 years," he confides. And it's worked for him: he's won a string of competitions in France and abroad, while continuing to run a lifting equipment hire business.
It is on the roads of his region that he trains on a daily basis, notably between Villeneuve-Saint-Georges and Valenton in the Val-de-Marne region of the Île-de-France. I'm happy to be cycling," he says, "and even when I stop competing at the highest level, I'll still be doing it, because it gives us a certain freedom to be able to be out in nature wherever we want.
© Paris je t'aime
Beyond his personal objectives, Riadh Tarsim is aiming for another success: "If, through my determination and my performance at the Games, I can motivate people with weaknesses or disabilities to return to sport, then that would be my greatest victory".
He wants to show that despite their disability, Paralympic athletes are great champions.
Riadh Tarsim is well aware of this: "Paris 2024 is a happy event that is extraordinary for the general public and for those who are passionate about sport...". And France will undoubtedly be there to support all its champions.
