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Zanardi in 2010.
He was leading the race at Germany’s Lausitzring Oval, four days after the September 11 attacks in America. The accident that changed his life held.
Coming out of the pits in the closing stages of the race, Zanardi made a mistake and spun onto the track. Canadian Alex Tagliani hit Zanardi’s car at about 200 miles wide and took the nose off.
The crash was like an exploding bomb, and after that Zanardi’s noseless car left a river of blood on the road.
His heart stopped seven times. He survived for about an hour on less than a liter of blood. He was saved by the intervention of a medical team led by Dr. Steve Olvey.
Speaking of regaining consciousness in a Berlin hospital eight days after the accident, Zanardi said: “I surprised myself that I felt or realized the most joy I’ve ever had in my life. The pain was unbelievable, I can’t describe it. But I was alive. Who cares about my leg? I’m alive. It was very natural for me to focus on what I survived.
It was the end of his career in single-seater racing, but he underwent an extensive rehabilitation program and was fitted with prosthetics.
In the year In 2003, he symbolically completed the remaining 13 laps of the race, which he had not completed two years earlier, in a hand-operated buggy.
He started running fast enough to qualify for the race, and that encouraged him to believe he could make a comeback in motorsport. In the year He raced for five seasons from 2005-9, winning four races in the World Touring Car Championship, and signed a deal with BMW to give him a car equipped with hand controls.
Although now in his 40s, Zanardi embarked on another challenge that would lead to his greatest achievements.
In the year He finished fourth in the handcycle class of the 2007 New York City Marathon after four weeks of training. This became Zanardi’s main focus and his success grew as the years went by.
In 2011, he won the New York Marathon. He then took gold medals in the road race and road time trial at the 2012 London Olympics and did another double four years later in Rio de Janeiro, this time combining the road time trial with the road team relay.
In total, he dominated the sport for seven years and added a total of 12 World Championship gold medals from 2013-19.
