On an Adventure Journey with the Rhönrad: Opening Show of the University Sports Show
Even if it seems impossible at first, Shahin Sadatolhosseini proves the opposite: He has already traveled several times on foot with his rhönrad to different countries, even continents. The impressions of his trip to Iran he processes in the opening show of this year's university sports show of the University Sports Center of RWTH Aachen (HSZ).
Born in Iran, he came to Germany at a young age and discovered rhonwheel gymnastics for himself in Aachen. Within a short time he was very successful and even competed for Iran in world championships. In the last years he traveled a lot with his wheel: First he went to Iran and later to the USA. The journey with the sports equipment took longer than originally planned. Every step has to be considered, because climbing stairs is not feasible with the big wheel and 150 kg of luggage. For a large part, he rode EuroVelo bike paths or even used a drone for his last trip to check the planned route. Along the way, he met many interested people, some of whom were not afraid to try their hand at the Rhönrad themselves.
In 2017, he traveled on foot with the wheel from Aachen to Iran. He was also there in 2022 when the protests against the regime began there. Based on these impressions, Shahin Sadatolhosseini choreographed the opening show of this year's University Sports Show on February 7. Sadatolhosseini was particularly keen to have a woman accompany the show musically, as women in Iran are forbidden to sing alone in front of an audience. Iranian singer Sanaz Zaresani will sing the protest song Baraye. Sadatolhosseini wants to draw attention not only to the current situation in Iran, but around the world: "It's important that we talk about the different situations and deal with them. Democracy is a permanent mission."