The character arc of Alex Zanardi
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born on 23 October 1966 in Bologna. Between then and his death sit a European karting title in 1987, Formula One from 1991, two CART championships and fifteen race wins with Chip Ganassi, a crash at the Lausitzring in September 2001 that cost him both legs, a return to racing in under two years, four wins in the World Touring Car Championship, a Laureus award for comeback of the year, a handcycle taken up with the stated goal of the 2012 Paralympics, four Paralympic gold medals, twelve world championships, a knighthood of the Italian Republic, and a road collision in June 2020. The line below draws the whole story.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who was Alex Zanardi?
Both legs, gone at the Lausitzring. He was racing again in two years.
He came up through karting, winning the European championship in 1987 and the European F3 Cup in 1990, and drove in Formula One from 1991 to 1994 and again in 1999, where his best finish was sixth in Brazil. The real success came in America: two CART national championships in 1997 and 1998 with Chip Ganassi Racing, and fifteen race wins.
He went back to CART in 2001. At the Lausitzring, in the American Memorial race that September, he had a major crash, and both of his legs were amputated.
He was racing again in under two years. European Touring Car from 2003, then five seasons in the World Touring Car Championship where he won four races, and in 2005 he was given the Laureus World Sports Award for Comeback of the Year. Racing a touring car with prosthetic legs and hand controls was, at the time, simply not a thing anybody had done.
And then he did it again in a different sport. He took up handcycling with the stated aim of representing Italy at the 2012 Paralympics, started collecting international medals almost immediately, and won two golds in London. He won two more in Rio in 2016. Between 2013 and 2019 he took twelve UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships across various categories.
He was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 2014 and inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2013. In June 2020 he was in a road collision during a handcycling race, had three hours of neurosurgery and was placed in an induced coma. He went home for rehabilitation eighteen months later, and died nearly six years after that day, at fifty nine.
The moments
Alex Zanardi's timeline.
The 1960s
Born in Bologna
Everyday. Bologna, Italy.
The 1980s
European karting champion
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Two junior titles, three years apart.
The 1990s
Formula One
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Five seasons at the top, and never quite a car.
CART champion
Milestone, and it changed everything. Two championships in a row, in America.
The 2000s
The Lausitzring
Setback, and it changed everything. Both legs, in one afternoon.
Retire, or get back in
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: get back in the car, taken, or stop at two championships. Four touring car wins, four Paralympic golds and twelve world championships came after that decision.
Back in a car
Milestone, and it changed everything. Less than two years, and he was racing again.
Comeback of the year
Milestone, and it changed his direction. The sport itself, saying so.
Four wins in touring cars
Milestone, and it changed everything. Not just competing, winning.
The 2010s
He takes up handcycling
Milestone, and it changed everything. A new sport, at forty three, with a target date.
Two golds in London
Milestone, and it changed everything. Two years of a new sport, and two golds.
Knight Grand Cross
Milestone, and it changed his direction. His country and his sport, both.
Two more in Rio
Milestone, and it changed everything. Four golds, from a man who had never cycled.
Twelve world titles
Milestone, and it changed everything. Twelve of them, in seven years.
The 2020s
A road collision
Setback, and it changed everything. On a road, on a handcycle, doing what he loved.
He dies at fifty nine
Setback, and it changed everything. Nearly six years later.
The four golds, the twelve world titles and the four touring car wins all came after the day most people would have treated as the end of the story. What he set moving is the shortest argument on this whole site, which is that he was told he would not race again, and then raced for nineteen more years.
Your turn
Every line draws a unique story.
His turned twice, and the second time he had to invent a way to do a sport he had never done. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Alex Zanardi: frequently asked questions
What people ask about his line.
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Where does this timeline of Alex Zanardi's life come from?
More character arcs
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Sources
- Alex Zanardi, English Wikipedia biography.
- His CART, World Touring Car and Paralympic records, as that biography sets them out.
- The Laureus World Sports Award for Comeback of the Year.
- The UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships record.