Alex Zanardi: A man who inspired millions in the face of unbelievable adversity
Zanardi found a niche in Cart in 2001, racing on a team founded by former Ganassi engineer Mo Nunn.
He was leading the race at Germany’s Lausitzring oval, held just four days after the 9/11 attacks in the United States. life changing accident happened.
Zanardi, who left the pits in the last stages of the race, made a mistake and went onto the track. Canadian Alex Tagliani crashed into Zanardi’s car at 200 miles per hour, tearing off his nose.
The crash was like a bomb exploding, and afterwards Zanardi’s noseless car was left across the road with blood pouring out of it.
His heart stopped seven times. He survived for about an hour on less than a liter of blood. He was saved thanks to the expert intervention of the medical team led by Dr Steve Olvey.
Explaining that he regained consciousness in the hospital in Berlin eight days after the accident, Zanardi said: “I surprised myself by feeling or feeling the greatest happiness I have ever experienced in my life. The pain was incredible. I cannot describe it. But I was alive. Who cares about my legs? I am alive. It was the most natural thing for me to focus on what was left.”
This was the end of his career in single-seater racing, but he underwent an extensive rehabilitation program and was fitted with prosthetic limbs.
In 2003 he had the chance to run a Cart car with hand controls at the Lausitzring, symbolically completing the remaining 13 laps of the race he had never finished two years earlier.
He lapped fast enough to qualify for the race, which encouraged him to believe he could return to motorsport. He made a deal with BMW to provide him with a car equipped with hand controls for the World Touring Car Championship, in which he competed for five seasons between 2005-9 and won four races.
Although now in his 40s, Zanardi had already embarked on another challenge that would lead him to his greatest achievements.
In 2007, after just four weeks of training, she finished fourth in the handcycle class in the New York City marathon. This became Zanardi’s main focus and his success grew over the years.
He won the New York Marathon in 2011. Later, at the 2012 London Olympics, she took gold in the road race and road time trial, and four years later in Rio De Janeiro she once again completed a double race, this time pairing the road time trial with the road team relay.
In fact, she dominated the sport for seven years, adding a total of 12 world championship gold medals from 2013-19.
