Alex Zanardi’s racing career was the kind of story that doesn’t need embellishment. It just needs to be listed.

Born in Bologna, he raced for Jordan, Minardi, and Lotus in Formula One before crossing the Atlantic and winning back-to-back CART championships in 1997 and 1998. A return to F1 with Williams followed, then another stint in American open-wheel racing — cut short on September 15, 2001, when he spun while rejoining the track at Germany’s Lausitzring. The impact, at roughly 200 mph, severed both of his legs.

He was 34. Most athletes would have been forgiven for never competing again. Zanardi designed his own prosthetics — he joked that he made himself taller — and learned to walk. Then he went back to work.

He won four World Touring Car Championship races for BMW between 2005 and 2009. He took up handcycling, built a bike with the legendary chassis maker Dallara, and won gold medals at the 2012 London Paralympics in the H4 time trial and road race, plus silver in the mixed relay. He was Italy’s flagbearer at the closing ceremony. At Rio 2016, he added two more golds and another silver, bringing his Paralympic total to four golds and two silvers across two Games.

He also won the New York City Marathon in his handcycling class, became a 12-time world champion, and set an Ironman world record in the disabled category at Cervia, Italy, in 2018.

In 2020, during a road race in Tuscany, his handbike collided with an oncoming truck. He suffered severe cranial and facial injuries, was placed in a medically induced coma, and spent years in partial recovery, largely withdrawn from public life.

His family announced his death on Saturday, saying he passed away on Friday evening, May 1, at the age of 59. “Alex died peacefully, surrounded by the affection of those closest to him,” they said in a statement. No cause was given.

The International Paralympic Committee called him “a pioneer, icon and legend of the Paralympic movement.” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the country had lost “a great champion and an extraordinary man, capable of turning every challenge of life into a lesson in courage, strength, and dignity.”

The Italian Olympic Committee requested a minute of silence at all sporting events in Italy this weekend. Funeral arrangements have not been announced.

Sources