Roei 'Jinji' Sadan, who biked around the world, dies at 38
Roei 'Jinji' Sadan was known for cycling around the world. During his 66,000 kilometer journey that took 1,458 days, he considered himself an ambassador to Israel in all the countries he rode through
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFRoei "Jinji" Sadan arrives at the Western Wall at the end of his around-the-world journey.(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)Roei 'Jinji' Sadan, an intrepid traveler who cycled around the world, died on Friday at age 38 from severe injuries after he was hit by a vehicle two days earlier.Sadan was struck at Rosh Hanikra, the northern-most point along Israel’s coastline and was taken to hospital where he was sedated and put on a ventilator.Sadan declared himself as an ambassador for Israel in all the places he visited on his epic 66,000-kilometer trans-continental journey that took him 1,458 days to complete.Sadan was also seriously injured two years ago when he sustained severe head trauma and he was confined to a hospital bed for several weeks. Following that injury, he had to completely relearn many motor skills, including how to ride a bicycle. After he recovered, he rode his bicycle out of the hospital.Three years into Sadan’s around-the-world journey in 2010, he wrote for The Jerusalem Post: “While I cycle across continents, I am not alone. I visit Israeli embassies around the globe, I give lectures at schools and I tell the world about Israel and how it is more than what the media will have them believe. Some call me the ‘ambassador on wheels.’”“This isn’t a competition,” he continued. “There are no prizes. There is no glory – only the glory of man fulfilling my destiny.”“At first, I didn’t think he’d finish,” an emotional Rachel Sadan, Roei’s mother, told the Post at the ceremony when he completed his journey. “But then he did one route and another route and another route, and he’s Jinji, and he knew he would do it,” she said.
