Alex Zanardi, 20 years ago the terrible accident in Germany

Twenty years ago, on September 15, 2001 at the Lausitzring, in Germany, Alex Zanardi’s life suddenly changed. In the Champ Car race, after a stop in the pits and returning to the track, Zanardi’s car loses control at low speed on a dirty stretch and his Reynard Honda – practically stationary on the track – is hit in a very violent impact by Forsythe led by Canadian Alex Tagliani. In the impact, which occurred at around 320 km / h, Tagliani’s car broke Zanardi’s car in half, and both legs were immediately amputated. When Cart’s chief medical officer Steve Olvey arrives, his legs are detached from his body and blood is dripping onto the asphalt unhindered. He blocks the flow by closing the femoral arteries, but Alex has only a liter of blood in his body at the moment. They transport him by helicopter to the hospital in Berlin, but the chaplain gives him extreme unction before leaving. The helicopter rescue lands on the roof of the hospital and the surgeon in charge of the hospital operates it for the first time already on that roof. There will be fifteen operations, four days of coma, six weeks of hospitalization. On 31 October 2001 he was discharged from the German clinic, ready to face the second part of his extraordinary life. Zanardi does not give up, he recovers from the injury and reinvents himself. Go back to walking with prostheses and even running in a car, in different categories. But the new passion is Handbike: fourth in his first race, the New York Marathon, in 2007. In 2011, he conquers the 42 km record in the Big Apple. The first Paralympic golds arrive in London. Four years later, in Rio, two more golds and one silver arrive in the road race. Between 2013 and 2019 he also won 12 world titles, which make him the most successful ever in the history of para-cycling. But Zanardi’s life is made up of struggle, sacrifice and suffering. On 19 June 2020 Zanardi participates in the Obiettivo Tricolore relay. In San Quirico d’Orcia, in Tuscany, the pilot goes at a speed between 45 and 50 kilometers per hour on the provincial road 146, between Chiusi and San Quirico d’Orcia, in a downhill section with a slope between the 4 and 5%. In the curve, at the height of the town of Pienza in Val D’Orcia, Zanardi loses control by overturning and ending up on the truck arriving in the opposite direction. In the violent impact, the champion lost his helmet. Immediately rescue, he was operated on at the Policlinico Le Scotte di Siena. On 21 July 2020, thirty-two days after the handbike accident, Zanardi left the hospital in Siena to be transferred to a specialized neuro-rehabilitation center of Villa Beretta in Costa Masnaga, in the Lecco area. This is where, for a year now, the athlete has been facing his functional recovery period to amaze the world of sport and beyond. MINARDI: “MUST DO IT AGAIN, WE MISS IT” Alex’s accident at the Lausitzring. We were in Monza for the GP and it was terrible but from that tragedy he was able to be reborn demonstrating a unique willpower. Now he has to repeat that feat. We want him back among us, we miss Alex so much “. Gian Carlo Minardi, founder of the Minardi F1 team, thus reminds Adnkronos of Alex Zanardi’s accident on September 15, 2001.The amputation of both lower limbs, 16 surgeries and 7 cardiac arrests did not stop Zanardi’s race. he is now called to another recovery after last year’s incident during a para-cycling event. “Alex was a great driver but as a man he was more, his example has inspired many boys – adds Minardi -. Twenty years ago bad luck raged against him but he was able to overturn history, I am convinced that he will know do it again “.