In 2001 Alessandro (Alex) Zanardi lost both his legs in a crash during a Championship Car (CART) race on the EuroSpeedway Lausitz in Germany. Despite losing 70% of his blood and his heart stopping seven times, he woke up after five days in a coma and got on with life.
He is quoted as saying that the day he awoke from his coma to learn he had lost his legs was “a good day. I was alive.”
It is that attitude, combined with his numerous para-cycling world titles and two Paralympic titles that earned Zanardi the SportAccord Euronews Sport Hero award. He was declared joint winner with French judoka Teddy Riner in front of two other shortlisted finalists: Lindsey Vonn (USA – alpine skiing) and Kohei Uchimura (JAP – gymnastics). The awards ceremony in Sochi, Russia, was broadcast live on Euronews in 156 countries and 13 languages.
Zanardi returned to racing less than two years after the accident that cost him his legs. Then, in 2009, he switched his car seat for that of a handbike, his eyes firmly set on the 2012 London Paralympic Games. The Italian put himself through a gruelling training programme that saw him progress from total beginner to world-class para-cyclist.
He was quickly adopted by the para-cycling world, not only because of his incredible rise into the world’s elite, but also because of his amazingly positive outlook, infectious smile, and self-deprecating sense of humour.
Silver medallist in the road time trial at the 2011 UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships, Zanardi went on the next year to live his Paralympic dream: two gold medals (in the road race and time trial) and a silver medal with his Italian team in the mixed relay. Few will forget the images of the Paralympic Champion victoriously holding his handbike aloft at Brands Hatch, the iconic British circuit he had first sped around as a Formula 3000 driver 21 years before.
“If I still had two legs, I would never have gone to London,” he philosophised after winning his Paralympic titles.
Aged 48, he is not the youngest para-cyclist on the circuit but does not necessarily see that as a handicap: “I’m ageing like Italian wine,” he declared last year, before winning the overall UCI Para-cycling World Cup, followed by gold in the time trial and team relay and silver in the road race at the UCI Para-cycling World Championships.
UCI President Brian Cookson, in Sochi this week for the SportAccord Convention World Sport & Business Summit, said: “Alex Zanardi is a fantastic ambassador for the sport of para-cycling. In just a few years he has risen to the ranks of the world’s elite and won all the major international handbike titles going. His talent, determination and spirit of fair play makes him an excellent role model for any budding sports person, be they able-bodied or disabled. He is a true sport hero.”