Alex Zanardi is an Italian race car driver who most recently raced in the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) seriesfor the BMW Italy/Spain team from 2005-2009. Prior to that he was a very successful CART racer winning the title back-to-back years for Chip Ganassi in 1997 and 1998. In the early 90s, he was a Formula 1 driver, just not a very successful one. Today, he won gold at the 2012 London Paralympics in paracycling, which hand biking with your arms. Yes, I know, I need to backup the story a little.
The date was September 15, 2001. Alex Zanardi and 26 other men were racing in Germany at EuroSpeedway Lausitz in the only American-based race that wasn't postponed due to the Sept. 11 attacks. Zanardi qualified 22nd, but wasn't worried because he liked the way his car felt. He cruised around the track, passing other drivers until he finally reached first with 13 laps to go. He went in for his final pit, but his pit crew waved him off. As he sped up to get back into the race, his car spun out of control and shot him onto the track. Canadian driver, Alex Tagliani, could not avoid him as he was going nearly 200 miles per hour and he barreled into the weakest part of Zanardi's car. To spare of you the gory details, the result was that Zanardi was left legless. It's a miracle he even survived.
Zanardi, being the competitor that he is, pushed himself to the limit and was walking with prosthetic legs mere months after the accident. Two years later he was in a race car finishing those 13 laps in Germany. Two years after that was when he started racing in the WTCC. He used hand-operated brake and accelerator controls with his left hand while steering with his right. He won four races over five seasons. In 2006, he drove a modified Formula 1, but afterwards acknowledged it was difficult to man the brake and accelerator with one hand and maneuver the corners with the other. He also stated he was aware no F1 team would sign him but just being able to drive one again felt amazing.
In 2007 Zanardi competed in the handbiking division of the New York City Marathon and finished fourth after just four weeks of training. Shortly after he decided to take up handbiking, or paracycling, full time with the goal of representing Italy in the 2012 London Paralympics. In 2009, he won the Venice Marathon's disabled division; in 2010, he won the Rome City Marathon; and in 2011, he won the New York City Marathon on his fourth attempt. He ended up qualifying for the paralympics this summer and today won the gold at paracycling over paracyling great, Oz Sanchez.
The most remarkable thing about Alex Zanardi's story is that he is age 45. That means that he took up a whole new sport at age 40 as a disabled man, and not only did he become good at it, he became one of the best. That also means that when he won Race 1 of the WTCC's Race of Czech Republic in 2009 he was 42, and, of course, he won while only using his hands to operate the car. Next he wants to tackle the Indy 500 and his old racing partner, Jimmy Vasser, promised him a car if he won gold at the paralympics. Well Jimmy, you better start making calls because Alex is officially a gold medalist. To the Indy 500 coordinators, let the man race next year because he won't stop trying until you do. The man has no quit. The man is Alex Zanardi.
References
http://espn.go.com/olympics/story/_/id/8340312/ex-f1-driver-alex-zanardi-wins-gold-2012-paralympics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Zanardig
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