![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/TRIATHLON-SYRIA-MERLIN-FERRET-6.jpg-web-1024x683.jpg\")
Portrait of Ehab Khallouf. (Merlin Ferret)<\/p>\nThe scene catches Syrian drivers off guard on this mild autumn morning. Along a wide stretch of the Mazzeh highway \u2014 one of Damascus\u2019 main arteries \u2014 a swarm of police officers forces cars into the left lane only. To their right, men and women are running and cycling at full speed through a thin layer of pollution.<\/p>\n
One turn and a few hundred yards further, the entrance of the Dunes Boutique luxury hotel in the Syrian capital comes into view. The resort\u2019s pool is serving as the starting point for the Syrian national triathlon championships.<\/p>\n
On this day in early November, unlike on many other days, there are no diplomats or business executives in sight in the lobby. Instead, nearly a hundred triathletes from across the country have gathered to compete for the title.<\/p>\n
Wearing a black spandex suit printed with \u201cSyria,\u201d Ehab Khallouf, 25, catches his breath after crossing the finish line, arms lifted toward the sky as he breaks through the red ribbon. Drops of sweat still run down his face, partly hidden by large sunglasses. He isn\u2019t euphoric; in truth, no one is surprised he won.<\/p>\n
Portrait of Ehab Khallouf. (Merlin Ferret)<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel proud, but the national championship is easy when you\u2019re the strongest athlete in the race,\u201d he tells New Lines with a smile. \u201cHonestly, my goal isn\u2019t a national title. I\u2019m aiming for the Asian championship and the world championship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year, Khallouf won the World Triathlon Development Regional Cup in Aqaba, Jordan, a competition designed to support federations and athletes from countries where the triathlon competition is still developing. Under Bashar al-Assad\u2019s rule, sports institutions received little support unless they served the interests or propaganda of the Baathist regime. Corruption was rampant, and virtually no initiatives to promote triathlons were ever put in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo equipment was ever provided to us. We once organized a one-month training camp in the UAE and had to cover every expense ourselves,\u201d Khallouf recalls. \u201cI also remember a race in Saudi Arabia. We took a bus for three days. I barely slept, and my legs were full of lactic acid when we arrived barely an hour before the start.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the new government of Ahmad al-Sharaa, whose forces overthrew Assad in December 2024, sports are not exactly at the top of the priority list, but efforts are being made to improve conditions for athletes. This is on display in the interactions of athlete and event organizer Dana Shubat, also known as \u201cDr. Dana,\u201d who calmly gives instructions to the staff overseeing the smooth running of the championships. That the police were mobilized to secure the race along one of Damascus\u2019 main highways is largely thanks to her.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe national federation\u2019s executive board has always been made up of older people with outdated ideas. They never wanted to hold a race in Damascus because it meant too much work,\u201d sighs Shubat, herself a former Syrian champion, who was elected head of the new federation last July. \u201cI wanted to show them that our sport can\u2019t grow unless we hold events in the capital and get everyone \u2014 the police, the ministries \u2014 working with us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barely three months into her mandate, Shubat had already reformed the federation and rewritten its regulations. She maintains close ties with key figures, such as former Minister of Youth and Sports Muhammad Sameh Hamed, as well as Prince Fahad Bin Jalawi Al Saud, president of the Asian Federation, who facilitated the participation of two young Syrian triathletes in an international competition in Bahrain last October by providing competition-grade bicycles.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/TRIATHLON-SYRIA-MERLIN-FERRET-13.jpg-web-1024x683.jpg\")
Adnan Zaki and Ehab Khallouf during their running training. (Merlin Ferret)<\/p>\n
Little by little, Shubat is breathing new life into Syrian triathlons, notably by requiring coaches across the country to present as many women athletes as men during competitions.<\/p>\n
While the first signs of change are already visible, the task ahead remains enormous. It will likely take years before a new generation of Syrian triathletes can compete at the highest international level, with the ultimate goal of qualifying for the Olympic Games. In the country\u2019s history, only two triathletes have ever represented Syria: Omar Tayara in Beijing in 2008 and, more recently, Mohamed Maso in Tokyo in 2021. Neither, however, was trained in Syria. Tayara was born and raised in Spain, and Maso sought refuge in Germany in 2015.<\/p>\n
For the 2028 Los Angeles Games, the horizon therefore appears especially distant for those triathletes who have remained in the country. Yet amid the ruins left by more than 14 years of war, two athletes have emerged, carrying the hopes of Shubat and the broader Syrian triathlon community: Khallouf, the current national champion, and Adnan Zaki, already a six-time titleholder at just 21 years old.<\/p>\n
Khallouf discovered the triathlon at the age of 17, when he followed a friend to Aleppo\u2019s municipal swimming pool in his hometown. He didn\u2019t know how to swim and preferred playing basketball. \u201cI immediately loved the discipline. A year later, I won my first triathlon race,\u201d recalls the young man from Aleppo, whose family has little interest in sports.<\/p>\n
By contrast, Zaki, whose father is an accomplished swimmer and whose mother is an amateur table tennis player, grew up with water sports from a very young age. \u201cMy parents were waking me up every day to swim. I didn\u2019t like it, but now I know it was worth it,\u201d he recalls. His potential as an athlete was quickly noticed, and he won the first of his six Syrian championship titles at only 15 years of age. That would be followed by four gold medals at the Arab Championships and a West Asian championship title in 2023.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/TRIATHLON-SYRIA-MERLIN-FERRET-20.jpg-web-1024x683.jpg\")
Adnan Zaki warms up in Al-Fayhaa Stadium in northern Damascus. In the background, a group of young soldiers is being trained by an instructor. Adnan and Ehab share the track with the new government recruits. (Merlin Ferret)<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first, when I didn\u2019t have any medals, no one would finance my races except my parents. So I had to win to make sure they didn\u2019t lose money, that was a motivation, too,\u201d explains Zaki, whose mother is a homemaker and whose father runs a school supply store.<\/p>\n
The family chose to remain in Damascus during the war but could not escape its consequences. \u201cOne day, during Eid, my dad got shot. He survived, but I will never forget this moment. There was a lot of shooting and tanks in our streets, so we fled to my grandpa\u2019s house,\u201d he recalls. Zaki, too, had to endure the abuses inflicted by the former regime.<\/p>\n
In March 2024, when he was 20, he was out on a bike ride and was arrested shortly after passing an army checkpoint, where he had just given his ID. \u201cAbout 500 meters after they let me go, a car pulled up with four armed men. They took me, but they didn\u2019t know how to fit the bike in the car. So, ironically, I ended up helping them load it,\u201d he says now with a mocking laugh.<\/p>\n
The guards eventually released him after three hours of questioning. But another threat continued to loom over the young triathlete\u2019s ambitions: He was due to begin his mandatory military service. Khallouf had been exempted under a long-standing Syrian law because he is his mother\u2019s only son. Zaki, however, has a brother, so they are both required to serve. He had already received orders to report to his military barracks on Dec. 18 when, serendipitously, the regime collapsed just 10 days prior.<\/p>\n
Zaki felt as if he had regained a future that had been hanging in the balance. But in the months following Assad\u2019s fall, all sports facilities remained closed, and he didn\u2019t feel safe enough to train in public. Uncertainty gripped the country despite the euphoria of the brutal regime\u2019s collapse. It took the young man a few months before he felt safe enough to get back to training.<\/p>\n
On Nov. 9, as the athletes stretch and prepare to race, the scene appears as ordinary as things have become in a postwar country still struggling to stabilize. The morning light reveals the constant veil of pollution that hangs over Al-Fayhaa Stadium in northern Damascus. A few state security guards with Kalashnikovs stand watch at the entrance. Nearby, a half-destroyed building still bears the scars of war.<\/p>\n
On the track, about 20 Syrian Army recruits rotate their arms and begin their laps, despite the watchful eye of a state security general who takes an interest in Khallouf and Zaki. \u201cYou see who our training partners are today?\u201d Zaki says with irony.<\/p>\n
Khallouf has come from Aleppo this weekend, specifically to train with his friend, four years his junior. The two talk through the morning\u2019s program as they stretch. Zaki explains the routine that his coach, who is based in Turkey, has prepared for him. Khallouf, by contrast, has no coach. He can\u2019t afford one, and neither can the federation.<\/p>\n
Most of the time, the two triathletes train on their own. \u201cI last trained with professional athletes in 2019, in Thailand. Since then, I\u2019ve been working out on my own. I occasionally join cycling, swimming or running groups, but that\u2019s not the ideal way to train,\u201d Zaki says.<\/p>\n
A few yards away, sitting on a decrepit bench in the stadium, where faded images of Damascus are plastered on the walls, Khallouf chimes in. \u201cThere\u2019s a small team in Aleppo, but most of them are in their 50s. It\u2019s not exactly my level,\u201d he jokes.<\/p>\n
In Syria, improving in each of the triathlon\u2019s disciplines requires not only time and family support but also an extraordinary level of perseverance. Aspiring athletes have to adapt, jostling for space at the pool, sharing the track with soldiers or navigating traffic on the highway. The federation tries to help with what little it has. It recently provided Khallouf with a pair of shoes costing a few hundred dollars for an international race, but it remains largely unable to supply proper equipment. Its stock of bikes is a glaring example: It owns about 10, all dating back to 2015. And there are daily challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cCycling isn\u2019t only about the roads and their bad conditions. Drivers often go the wrong way, and the dust and car fumes make it tough. When I went for a race in Kazakhstan, I finally got to feel what clean air was like,\u201d Zaki says, recalling a trip he had made.<\/p>\n
For Khallouf, one of the biggest challenges has been maintaining a consistent swimming routine. \u201cDuring winter, if the pool was open, I could only train for one hour a day, and the water was freezing. With the new government, we finally got access to a heated pool in Aleppo, but now it\u2019s way too warm,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/TRIATHLON-SYRIA-MERLIN-FERRET-27.jpg-web-1024x683.jpg\")
Ehab Khallouf during his training in the swimming pool. (Merlin Ferret)<\/p>\n
A few laps later, the two athletes pack up their gear and head to the pool at Al-Fayhaa Stadium. They have one hour to train before the pool switches to women-only hours. With towels wrapped around their hips, they discreetly slip into their swimsuits and mandatory swim caps. Rust stains on the ceiling speak to the facility\u2019s age and decay. In the water, about 10 men in their 50s are trying to shed their love handles or learn to swim with flotation belts. The two triathletes manage to find a lane with no swimmers and begin racking up laps.<\/p>\n
Another major obstacle is obtaining visas. Under Assad, Zaki and Khallouf were often prevented from competing abroad. \u201cWe missed many races outside Syria because of visa problems, and we only have three races a year. And those races don\u2019t give qualification points, so everything is harder,\u201d Adnan explains. \u201cOn top of that, the regime wouldn\u2019t grant visas for Europe because they were scared we\u2019d flee the country and seek asylum.\u201d<\/p>\n
The war and the massive flow of refugees have also cast a new, often mistrustful, sometimes hostile light on them. \u201cIn Arab countries, as soon as they saw our passport, they rejected us. It\u2019s also an issue of racism,\u201d Khallouf laments.<\/p>\n
Since the fall of the Assad regime, Damascus Airport has reopened, making international travel easier for the two Syrian triathletes, who previously had to transit through Beirut. But they will now have to carefully choose the races they enter \u2014 and, above all, string together strong performances \u2014 if they hope to have a chance at qualifying for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.<\/p>\n
In early November, Khallouf traveled to compete at the Islamic Solidarity Games, held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, through Nov. 21. Zaki, meanwhile, remained in Damascus. He is suspended until November 2026 after testing positive for DMHA, a substance prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), and he is barred from all official races until then. He was therefore unable to defend his Syrian national title this year.<\/p>\n
Zaki insists he never intentionally took the stimulant, which enhances performance and reduces fatigue. \u201cI was only taking supplements, maybe some bad ones. You never really know where they come from. There\u2019s also the possibility that someone set me up,\u201d he says. Steroids and doping have been very common among Syria\u2019s gym-goers, perhaps as a ripple effect from the Assad regime\u2019s trade in illicit substances like Captagon, and the popularity of steroid use among the regime\u2019s thugs and special forces. During a visit to any gym in Damascus, it is not uncommon to find men with very large muscles \u2014 too grotesque to be natural and drug-free.<\/p>\n
Despite several appeals to WADA, the suspension was upheld because Zaki \u201cwas unable to demonstrate that he had not taken the substance in question,\u201d according to a source close to the case.<\/p>\n
But on the day after his suspension is lifted in November, Zaki will compete in his first qualifying race for the Los Angeles Games. He will need to race relentlessly to reach his goal, but the 21-year-old\u2019s track record speaks volumes about his ability.<\/p>\n
Khallouf also hopes to gather enough points for California. \u201cThis is my moment to qualify for the Olympics,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Both athletes hope to follow in the footsteps of Man Asaad, Syria\u2019s most recent Olympic medalist, who brought home bronze from the Tokyo 2021 Games. His portrait, faded by time, can be seen posted at the exit of Al-Fayhaa Stadium as the two athletes wrap up their training session. The image serves as a reminder to Zaki and Khallouf: They are embarking on a journey that, despite its many challenges, could make them among the greatest athletes in Syrian sporting history.<\/p>\n