Raphael Schweda

Schweda's mother is a teacher and his father is an electrical engineer. He has a sister (Juliane), who is 2 years younger. He grew up in Groß Lindow, a village close to Frankfurt (Oder), Brandenburg. Early in his childhood he developed his interests in sports, music and science. He played piano for more than ten years and participated in highly respected music competitions, proving to be one of the best piano musician in his age group. Although he started out as a highly successful swimmer, he was asked to leave the team due to his refusal as to enroll at the sports grammar school. Taking his grandfather as his role model he started at a local cycling club. He proved to be even more successful as a cyclist. However, his early career ended abruptly after he was expected to join the local sport grammar school again, which was the only way to continue his training. He stopped all sport activities altogether for almost two years. Only the reunification offered an opportunity to freely pursue his sport activities again. In the first year as he restarted, he was already 4th in German Road Championship in his age group. Since then he held a permanent spot in the "National – Team" for several years.