Racing driver Alessandro Zanardi: a role model for life

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A great optimist: After his accident at the Lausitzring in 2001, Alessandro Zanardi started a successful career as a handbike athlete

Sebastian Vettel wears the sticker "Forza Alex" on his helmet, as does the winner of the last two Formula E races in Berlin, Antonio Felix da Costa: The racing world is still worried about Alessandro Zanardi, whom most companions only call Alex. On June 19, he lost control of his handbike in a relay race near Pienza, hit a truck and sustained serious facial and skull injuries.

Since then he has had to be operated four times, an interim transfer to a neurological rehabilitation clinic did not go well, he had to go back to the intensive care unit of a Milan hospital. His condition is stable, it is said - the doctors are still very careful with details. A lot can be gleaned from the words of his 21-year-old son Niccola when he says: "The problem with his eyesight is the smallest for the time being. It is important to know whether we can communicate with him again."

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Between 2005 and 2009 Zanardi drove motor races again and took part in the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) for BMW

For many, Zanardi is a role model, an idol, an inspiration - someone who can apparently achieve anything: formerly as a Formula 1 driver, in 1999 with Williams' team-mate of Ralf Schumacher, then as two-time IndyCar champion, who on September 15, 2001 the Lausitzring lost both legs in an accident. Nevertheless, he continued in motorsport, driving cars specially modified for him, especially in the touring car world championship, but also endurance races and once a DTM outing. Only on the side, then as a focus, he built up a second sports career: As a handbiker, he won three gold and one silver medal in the individual competitions at the Paralympics in London and Rio, and in September 2019 at the Ironman Italy he finished with 8: 25.30 Hours a world record.

"I'm almost German now"

The 53-year-old Italian has never seen himself as something special: "The single mother who gets up early every day and goes to work to look after her children, even when she is not doing well at all - is not much more of an inspiration ? "he countered when he had the feeling that he was being lifted onto the big podium.

For him, everything that was so admired especially after his accident and the return to life is more of a logical normality. "Instead of focusing on what I can no longer do because I lost my legs, instead of being frustrated because of it, I focused on what I can still do. On what I have left. I have after things from now on wanted that I can still do - and found an incredible number of them. I can say with full conviction: I was able to turn my accident into an opportunity. " But he is not alone in this either, there are an unbelievable number of people who have overcome accidents and strokes of fate, "only my story has just been told again and again because I was a little more prominent."

But it was also told so often and with pleasure because Zanardi is a fascinating personality when you have the chance to get to know him better and his talent to tell stories with a mixture of optimism, realism and a lot of humor, sometimes a good one Portion of black: "I'm almost German by now - with so much German blood flowing in my veins after the many transfusions I received in the hospital in Berlin after the accident", that's a saying that will be remembered that he liked to bring up in various interviews in the first few years after the crash - and even later now and then.

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At the Paralympics in London 2012, Zanardi won two gold and one silver medal

"Weeds don't go away", he laughed two years ago, in our last long conversation, even in German about himself when it came to future plans, the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo - which was another big goal for him back then. In London 2012, after winning his second gold medal, he kept getting the same number on his cell phone - an Italian area code that indicated the headquarters of an authority. "This number kept calling while I was talking to others. I was wondering who the hell is that - and when I got to the Italian house, I heard: 'Where have you been, our President Napolitano was looking for you, he really wanted to talk to you. That made me proud. "

To keep learning and looking for new challenges, that's what Zanardi sees as his philosophy of life: "Otherwise it would be boring." The most important thing is to make the best possible use of the time you have: "Basically, to move in a constructive direction, in one that allows you to use your creativity, develop your talents, and do things from them they can be said to have left some good marks. Life is short - but if you live it right, it's probably long enough. "

Now he has to fight to return to this life for the second time. In spite of everything, his son is confident that this is possible. "He still has a long way to go, we are prepared for that," said Niccolo Zanardi in an interview with Italian Corriere della Sera in July. "But he'll make it this time too. And one day we'll talk about it. He'll tell me and he'll tell my kids."