Remembering Alex Zanardi: Italy's Auto-Racing Champion, Who Won Paralympic Gold, Passes Away At 59
Alex Zanardi, the Italian auto racing champion-turned-Paralympic gold medalist whose career was marked by two life-altering accidents, has died. He was 59. Zanardi’s family announced his death on Saturday, saying that he passed away on Friday night. In 2020, Zanardi was seriously injured in a hand bike accident after crashing into an oncoming truck during a relay event in Tuscany. Zanardi suffered serious facial and cranial trauma in the crash and was put in a medically induced coma. Nearly 20 years earlier, Zanardi lost both of his legs in an auto racing crash.
Former CART champion driver Alex Zanardi waves the checkered flag at the finish line at the CART Molson Indy, in Toronto. | Photo: AP/Frank Gunn, File
Italian driver Alex Zanardi's car breaks up after it crashed with Canadian driver Alex Tagliani during the CART car race at the Eurospeedway Lausitz in Klettwitz, eastern Germany. Photo: AP/Eckehard Schulz
Two-time CART champion Alex Zanardi, who lost both of his legs in a horrific crash in 2001, smiles from inside the modified cockpit of his BMW-Sauber C24-B after his historic drive, as he becomes the first double amputee to test drive a Formula One car in the Cheste racetrack near Valencia, Spain. | Photo: AP/Fernando Bustamante, File
In this Saturday, Oct. 10, 2015 file photo, Alex Zanardi, of Italy, rides during the cycling portion of the Ironman World Championship Triathlon, in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. () | Photo: AP/Mark J. Terrill, File
Alex Zanardi, of Italy, pumps his fist to the crowd as he rounds the track on his victory lap after winning the Toronto Molosn Indy | Photo: Brian Kerrigan/The Canadian Press via AP, File
Italian driver Alex Zanardi kisses the winners trophy at the Australian Indy Car race in Surfers Paradise, Queensland. | Photo: AP/Steve Holland, File
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