Pedaling Through Pain
How a wounded reservist and a paralyzed teen found strength together
At 18, Mati Weiss rides a hand-powered bicycle after paralysis, while her coach Ohad Tanami carries the weight of war and loss together, they joined 300 cyclists and 17 rehabilitating children to complete a journey halted by war two years ago.
Thirty kilometers in, on a cold night, in open terrain near Modi’in, a flat tire brings everything to a halt. Mati Weiss, 18, sits on her bicycle reading a book, waiting patiently as her coach, Ohad Tanami, fixes the punctured wheel.
As he works, Ohad finds himself thinking of a sentence his battalion commander, Nati Alkobi, used to repeat: “Do the very best, and then a little more, and we will have a different country.”
Nati was killed in combat in Khan Younis, four days before the end of Ohad’s first reserve duty rotation in the war. The sentence stayed with him. It accompanied them not only throughout the 260 kilometers of the cycling journey completed by Mati, Ohad and the rest of the group, but throughout the emotional journey they have traveled since October 7. “After Nati was killed, I needed time for myself,” Ohad shares. “I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress. I lost close friends. I felt I couldn’t commit to a journey like the one we did the year before.”
After several months, he decided to return. For Mati. For himself. For Nati.
