Bicycles are rampant in Asmara with many people, no matter their age or gender, using them daily for recreation and as a method of transportation.

His parents could not afford to replace it, so he turned to running instead at age 15 after having to walk up to 20 kilometres regularly to reach school punctually.

Then, he escaped from the team with a colleague and headed directly to Geneva, Switzerland where he arrived as a refugee seeking asylum at the young age of 21.

[14][15] Political problems in Eritrea pushed him to permanently leave the country in search of a better life.

[16] Tadesse remembers the first few years being challenging due to the fact that he spoke English as opposed to the Swiss German language and knew no one around the area.

Prior to his naturalisation, his running career stagnated somewhat as he was stationed at a refugee camp that rendered him incapable of going out for three months.

He ran in several small races throughout the years, both locally in Switzerland and abroad once he finally received permission to travel in 2007.

He participated in the Berlin Half Marathon on 5 April 2009, finished in 11th place, and clocked an impressive time of 1:01:25.

Tadesse waited 10 years to obtain Swiss citizenship officially in 2014 and began to represent his adopted country from that point on at international competitions.

[21] Due to an injury,[22] Tadesse missed most of the 2017 season, including the World Championships in London.

When Tadesse was injured in 2017, his family supported him and remained by his side the entire time while he recovered.

[30] He tested positive for COVID-19 in March 2021, just days before he was supposed to fly from a training camp in Ethiopia to Geneva for the Belp Marathon.