Alex Zanardi

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Alessandro Leone Zanardi (Italian pronunciation: [ˈaːleks dzaˈnardi]; 23 October 1966 – 1 May 2026) was an Italian racing driver and para-cyclist who competed in Formula One between 1991 and 1999, in CART between 1996 and 2001, in the World Touring Car Championship from 2005 to 2009, and at two editions of the Summer Paralympics in 2012 and 2016. In American open-wheel racing, Zanardi won two CART national championship titles in 1997 and 1998 with Chip Ganassi Racing. In para-cycling, he won four Paralympic gold medals and 12 UCI Road World Championships. After a brief career in kart racing and junior formulae—where he won the CIK-FIA European Championship in 1987 and the FIA European F3 Cup in 1990—Zanardi contested Formula One from 1991 to 1994 and again in 1999; his best result was a sixth-place finish in the 1993 Brazilian Grand Prix. Between these spells, he won two titles and 15 races in CART. Upon his return to CART in 2001, a major crash in the 2001 American Memorial at the Lausitzring resulted in the amputation of both his legs. He returned to racing less than two years after the accident, competing in European Touring Car from 2003 to 2005 before a five-year stint in the World Touring Car Championship, where he scored four victories. He received the Laureus World Sports Award for Comeback of the Year in the latter year. In addition to continuing his motor racing career, Zanardi began handcycling, with the stated goal of representing Italy at the 2012 Summer Paralympics. He soon began taking international medals before winning two golds at the Paralympics, which he repeated in 2016. He additionally won 12 UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships in various categories between 2013 and 2019. In June 2020, Zanardi was involved in a road collision while competing in the Obiettivo Tricolore handcycling race; he underwent three hours of neurosurgery before being placed in an induced coma. He returned home for rehabilitation 18 months later and died nearly six years after the accident. In addition to being appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 2014, Zanardi was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2013 and the Long Beach Motorsports Walk of Fame in 2022.

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Career

1. 1966
   Birth