Sport is often said to be full of heroes and exemplary stories that represent values. Of the very rare occasions when this phrase is true, few were more fitting than the story of the life of the Italian Alex Zanardi, who passed away at 59 in his native country this Friday, May 1. Zanardi dreamed in his childhood in Bologna of becoming a Formula 1 driver and champion. He achieved both, but not at the same time.
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As a driver, he had a modest career in Formula 1 and Indy Car, between 1991 and 1999. Modest because his best position was sixth place in Brazil in 1993 and he only scored one point in the world championship standings in the elite of motorsport, but extraordinary in terms of his longevity among the best. The Italian alternated competitions and made a place for himself in the CART Championship, where tragedy would surprise him.
On September 15, 2001, competing in the CART tournament at Lausitzring (Germany), Zanardi suffered a terrible accident. Trying to regain positions, he lost control of the vehicle and crashed into the car of his teammate Patrick Carpentier. In the crash, he could have bled out — he lost three quarters of his blood — and was close to death. He saved his life but lost both legs: one up to the knee and the other above it. Problems in the amputated limbs accompanied him for the rest of his life, and he had to undergo more operations in which more tissue was removed from the limbs.
“When I woke up without legs, I looked at the half that remained, not the half I had lost”
Alex Zanardi
F-1 driver and Paralympic champion
But the Italian was not one to give up. He remained linked to motorsport, trying to return to competition. Even in 2006, he tested a vehicle adapted to his disability in Valencia. He achieved some success, but it was no longer the same. It was never the same.
But after the accident, Zanardi had discovered he had two more engines: his arms, which now propelled a wheelchair. He discovered adapted cycling, the handbike, in which the hands propel the wheels. In 2007 he completed the New York marathon in this modality, and decided to make the leap. He could still be a champion.
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Zanardi set his sights on the 2012 London Paralympic Games, where he wanted to compete. And he did, and how. Zanardi won the gold medal in the men’s H4 road time trial. Two days later, he won the individual H4 road race, and later earned a silver medal for Italy in the mixed team relay H1-4. His Paralympic debut ended with two golds and two silvers. The handbike with which he won the three medals is currently on display at the Musme, the Museum of the History of Medicine in Padua.
The Italian set no limits for himself and wanted to compete, just before turning 50, in the Rio Paralympic Games. He added another gold in the men’s H5 road time trial and another in the mixed team relay. In the road race, he took silver, and closed his Paralympic career with four gold medals.
A second accident in 2020, from which it took 18 months to recover, sidelined him from sport
The Italian could no longer compete in Tokyo 2020. Due to the pandemic, and a devastating accident — another one. In July 2020, his handbike crashed into a truck traveling in the opposite direction. He suffered serious head injuries. He did not regain sight or hearing until December, and in January 2021 he recovered speech. He was not discharged until January 2022.
Alex Zanardi lived the rest of his days more quietly, until death surprised him on May 1. He left no written epitaph, perhaps because he had already verbalized it after the accident in which he lost his legs: “When I woke up without legs, I looked at the half that remained, not the half I had lost.” That is what he said.
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