Rahsaan Bahati

Rahsaan F. Bahati is the fourth child and first son of Nassoma Bahati, a former school teacher in Compton Unified School District, and Rashid Bahati a film producer and executive director of the Bahati Foundation. His parents migrated from Birmingham, Alabama to Southern California in the early 1980’s. Rahsaan’s father a former professional musician was so impressed by a famous Jazz saxophonist named Rahsaan Roland Kirk that he named his son after him. Rahsaan attended several private schools in Compton and was introduced to cycling at Davis Middle School Compton Unified School District.

Rahsaan had an excellent childhood growing up with his five sisters and one brother in Compton, California even though he was exposed to gangs, drugs and crime that proliferated his South Central Los Angeles neighborhood he through being a strong family was able avoid these negative influences. Rahsaan played little league Baseball and pop-warner Football for the Carson Colts. He could have easily fallen into the circumstances of his surroundings without the support of two loving parents and his six siblings along with the fateful combination of a teacher, an eraser, and a classmate that would change his life forever.

In his early years Rahsaan was a kind of class clown. Along with the usual punishments, the teacher recommended that Rahsaan start an afterschool program to focus some of his extensive energy. He was given the choice between golf and bikes, and with the idea that “bikes” meant motorbikes Rahsaan choose the later. Next day father took him to was once the local velodrome in Carson now none as the VELO Sports Center. Rahsaan was a natural. Picked to go to Kenosha, Wisconsin for the US junior track Nationals. He brought home four medals that year and launched a junior career that brought him over 80 victories and 5 straight selections to the US National Team. He attended Crenshaw High School when to family moved from Compton to Leimert Park in Los Angeles.

While many of his classmates and friends were getting into a gang lifestyle and feeling relegated to their surroundings Rahsaan was developing into an accomplished cyclist and riding with The Major Motion Cycling Team out of Leimert Park. Through the efforts of members of the team, he was able to train and race in local criterium (a spectator-friendly short course race) and road races. Success came quickly and continued through his attendance at Indiana University. After completing his degree Rahsaan launched full-time into a professional cycling career with some of the top level US cycling teams. In 2008, he completed a life long dream and became a US National Pro Champion in Criterium.

The Bahati home, where Rahsaan grow up during his high school years with his parents and six siblings, sit on a quiet street just a few blocks off Crenshaw Boulevard in Leimert Park in Los Angeles. The house is a neat two-story with green trim, decorated with African art, family pictures, and the spoils of Rahsaan’s victories. On top of the television is a golden cup--a trophy from the Tour de l’Abiti, a prestigious Canadian race for juniors. A carved stone, a trophy from the McLane Pacific Cycling Classic in Merced, stands in front of the fireplace. Early His coaches noticed his innate strength, and how easily he could sprint around the track, and they encouraged his parents to buy him a track bike. But money was tight. Nassoma Bahati, who works at Harriett Tubman continuation school for teenage mothers in Compton, and husband Rashid, then a high school television production/technology instructor at Compton High School, and now a film producer, were supporting seven children, and spending money on a bicycle seemed extravagant. But Rashid Bahati bought a track bike anyway. “I think I paid four or five hundred dollars for a used track bike,” he recalls. “It was blowing me away, it costs this much, a used bike.”

By the end of the next year, Rahsaan Bahati had won a silver medal at the junior national track championships.

• Official website