"Quando mi sono risvegliato senza gambe ho guardato la metà che era rimasta, non la metà che era andata persa". In occasione del compleanno di Alex Zanardi, riproponiamo un documentario che lo racconta in tutto il suo coraggio a partire dal grave incidente che l'ha coinvolto in Germania il 15 settembre 2001.
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00:17Thank you all.
00:39I believe that it is important to make your own path in life and this was the one that my heart felt.
00:44was pushing me to choose, so I synchronized my brain on what I had to do to get the best out of it
00:53from the choice I had made.
01:26I think I lost my legs.
01:29And instead I found again the way to do an endurance sport that is not like telling the story
01:37of the grape fox, it is also beautiful.
01:52Then I have a character, I don't know if it was the tortellini Bolognese or my parents' education, what are some things.
02:00However, I have an evidently very positive character, I always see the glass full, not half full.
02:14It is impossible to imagine Alex Zanardi without his smile, it is impossible to imagine us without Alex, it is impossible to think of him without a path to follow.
02:23under the wheels, a goal to chase just for the sake of it.
02:30It's impossible to even imagine Alex without a steering wheel.
02:33The other passion, or rather the first passion, is the one that an Emilian has in his blood, a passion that speaks of
02:38roots together of distant worlds that crowd a child's dreams.
02:42I used to watch the first films on TV with my dad on the sofa, in short it was something that was fermenting in my belly.
02:49until the day dad came home one day from work and suggested buying me a go-kart
02:55as an alternative to the scooter.
02:57Karting was actually a way to keep me off the road. I think karting was a
03:05life gym.
03:09Alex's first life is in another century, in an era where engines roar without silencers.
03:14or limits, inside single-seaters where the driver's hand counts even more than the electronics.
03:19The first lap on the Formula 1 carousel from 1991 to 1994 didn't bring much luck. Here's the transition
03:26to Formula Kart which brought Zanardi almost immediate success and two world titles in 1997 and 1998.
03:49Even then Alex could imagine roads and ingenious trajectories like that day on the Corkscrew at Laguna Seca, an overtaking at
03:56'last lap alone is enough to make him an idol in the United States.
03:59In 1999 another unfortunate stint in Formula 1, then in 2001 the return to Formula Kart.
04:06On September 15th of that year, the accident we have seen and re-seen dozens of times occurred on the Ausitzring track.
04:21Thank you.
04:44I believe that the simple fact of living
04:47It implies that sooner or later fate will have some surprises in store for us.
04:51Some are pleasant, others, unfortunately, are difficult and hard moments to overcome.
04:58After that, each of us has a limit, a threshold beyond which there is no possibility of reacting,
05:05Maybe we give up, but this thing needs to be explored a little.
05:10I don't wish it on anyone, obviously, but I had found myself in the accident before.
05:17to ask myself how I would react in a situation like the one I found myself in
05:22and the answer I gave myself was very different from the reaction I actually produced
05:28the moment it actually happened.
05:51Alex's reaction is that of a giant, a giant without legs now, but with something
05:56inside that it went off.
05:57In his eyes you can read the light and simplicity of always, but also a new will, the desire
06:03not to bow to fate.
06:29This is what I did in the difficult moment of my accident.
06:34after I woke up from the coma, I spent eight days in a coma situation which, well,
06:42I have nothing to tell, I saw no light at the end of it all, no one calling me
06:46on the other side, but luckily I woke up and there in Berlin they had attacked me
06:53not the IV, the demijohn with the blood because I was truly empty.
06:58In fact, I even jokingly said that they should have given me a German passport because
07:02I now only have German blood flowing through my body.
07:06It's not a joke, since the accident I like beer, before I hated it so evidently
07:11something that is relevant to that type of blood that calls her.
07:31But jokes aside, it was certainly a difficult time and yet finding the point of contact
07:40between the functioning of a prosthetic knee and the suspension of a racing car was my point
07:46supporting
07:47to make me curious about what I was forced to do because there was no choice there.
07:54Because you know, one thing is to say get passionate here and there, one on the other side says yes okay but Zanardi but
07:59who's telling it?
08:00You drive beautiful cars, you destroy them, they give you a new one, you go to the Olympics, it's easy to get passionate
08:07to that stuff there.
08:07Oh no, we also need to know how to be passionate about the things we have to do.
08:12At that moment, being able to get passionate about what was waiting for me, being able to form a team around me
08:18it was fundamental, it was let's say the entry point to a path that then led me to what
08:24what am I doing today
08:27because wanting to fly all the things I'm doing right now are directly connected to my new condition
08:34and I'm very comfortable with that in my life.
08:54Zanardi gets back in the car and wins again but soon other wheels call his curiosity
08:59It's 2007, just a few months away from the New York Marathon.
09:03My passion for handbiking was born quite casually.
09:06because one day I was returning home, at that time I was living in the Principality of Monaco
09:12and I found myself challenging another driver for the same parking space because we both had our sights set on it.
09:23and Vittorio and Podestà were driving that car and he recognized me and then we started chatting.
09:4020 days after my World Cup Alex called me and said, you know Vittorio, do you remember me?
09:45I told him yes, Whistle, I remember you, yes, look, I have to ask you a favor.
09:51I decided to go and run the New York Marathon
09:55beautiful beautiful come on come on we have actually we have almost more than a year to prepare it
09:59and he says no no no but you didn't understand the one next month
10:03Alessandro tells me no, I've seen you do a lot of things but this one can't be done
10:07believe me you can't it's not possible it's technically impossible
10:12but are you crazy I mean have you already started?
10:14no I don't even have a bicycle I'll find a bicycle
10:16then I found a bicycle that a Swiss friend was selling
10:20and at that moment he is still doing the pilot
10:22I remember that they delivered it to him in Monza
10:40and let's say no but you can't do 40km every day at full speed
10:45to see how much faster you go
10:47and no no but why is he doing it today
10:49and he told me today but we were on the phone for I think two hours a day
10:53so much so that we did I remember that we made a telephone subscription
10:57like you and me not like boyfriends do
11:00he was training too much and was slowly getting tired
11:04his luck was that he had to ship the endbike 3-4 days early
11:09and so because he was going to America he had it sent by cargo and so at that time
11:14the game force had to rest otherwise the star of the New York marathon would have arrived so tired
11:19that perhaps he would have finished it but certainly not in the time he managed to do
11:23and from there everything was born, above all a brotherly friendship
11:28why do we continue? Maybe we don't spend two hours on the phone but we talk three or four times a week
11:34Vittorio was my crash course and then a very nice and affectionate one I would say
11:45adventure companion because I believe we have mutually pushed each other during these
11:52last years
11:53yes but you have to fix it with the frames you can't put it on top of here
11:56On this journey I have made many friends Mario Valentini who is a unique captain
12:07It's not uncommon to find all the boys teammates of the Italian National Paracycling Team
12:13in particular Vittorio who in my specific case was present and a witness from the very first hour
12:20This knowledge was also useful to both of them from a technical and sporting point of view
12:24because we have stimulated each other with an idea that comes to one another, the other elaborates it and then adds something to it
12:31so the fact that then the two of us and then this whole national team became strong
12:37it is also due to all this union of things
12:41I was the first to bring bikes to a certain level in Italy
12:46but rather we certainly became the team nation that won three world championships in a row
12:52and after the silver in Beijing
12:55so at this moment we must be ashamed to say
13:00we are the strongest nation in the world in Embai
13:02and after the silver in Beijing
13:38for the people who had accompanied me up to that moment, such as my wife
13:42very knowledgeable on the subject of motoring
13:45because I met Daniela in that world
13:48he was also my sports director
13:50so I also share with her the passion for engines
13:53she's a woman who has always been a bit of a manager for me too
13:56so a very intelligent woman and very knowledgeable on the subject
13:59and so she didn't really understand this handbike thing
14:02to the point that she looked at me almost perplexed
14:05because in the eyes of many it seemed a bit like the championship of the bell ringer San Cristano at Perpetua
14:10there is a competition in the parish telling me
14:11but how?
14:12but you leave that golden world to go and do that stuff there?
14:23that stuff there is worth an Olympic dream
14:26the first is at the London 2012 Games
14:28and curiously in the Brent's Hatch circuit
14:30one of the British sanctuaries dedicated to motors
14:33the circuit of Zanardi's first pole position in Formula 3000
14:36More than 20 years have passed since then
14:39and it hasn't been more than 20 years
15:13two gold medals in the H4 category
15:16and a silver in the mixed relay are worth a new transformation
15:19first a pilot, then a symbol of tenacity and courage
15:22now Zanardi from Castelmaggiore
15:24he became a legend
15:29London was a wonderful, fantastic experience.
15:32which ended in the best possible way
15:35with Zanardi lifting his handbike with one hand
15:39a photo that was not thought out at all
15:42sorry, a photographed gesture and not at all thought out
15:45but extremely effective
15:47because the next day I picked up a copy of the newspaper
15:55which I believe was the Times
15:56which had this huge photo on the front page
15:59and I was immediately struck by it
16:02because I was not the subject portrayed
16:05I would have said
16:05this photo is beautiful
16:07They couldn't have chosen a more beautiful photo
16:10because it is very representative
16:11and yet I saw that thing
16:14in that image
16:16only after having seen her myself
16:18I hadn't thought of it at all
16:20the moment I thought about getting a handbike
16:23I was just happy with what I had just managed to do
16:282012 was a watershed between these two eras
16:32a little bit also for the London Paralympics
16:36but a little for many personalities like Alex
16:40who contributed to making it happen
16:44that in Italy
16:45why in England and other parts of the world
16:47the Paralympic world was more felt
16:51instead in Italy a little bit precisely
16:54the London Paralympics
16:56but Alex also contributed
16:57to make them as if to say
16:59more in the attention of the mass media
17:03I am 100% convinced of this
17:11the first time I entered the national team
17:14the thing that struck me about Alex
17:16and the attention to detail
17:21in the details of bike care
17:24I thought Alex had it available
17:28like mechanics
17:29I mean like Formula 1 drivers
17:32mechanics who worked at night for him
17:35and he was there followed on an armchair
17:37but I was also very wrong
17:42that is, he carved out his own corner
17:45in the workshops, precisely in the garages
17:48under the hotels where we went on retreat
17:52and he was night and day
17:54Look, I'm not exaggerating when I say night and day.
17:56in front of his bike
17:58he greased the wheel bearings
18:01I don't know what he modified for that race
18:04and from there you could see the passion
18:06for what he was doing
18:08because a great person like him
18:11a character like him
18:12devote yourself to these details
18:14he meant that
18:16there was great passion
18:19and he passed it on to me
18:20in the end it became me
18:22even a bit of a maniac
18:23it is not visible
18:44like him
18:52has
19:07Mazzanardi is not satisfied with the marathons nor with the domination he is beginning to impose in the world championships
19:11handbike. His curiosity leads him to think even bigger about his dream of becoming an Ironman.
19:34From the outside it might seem that I live my path and my goals almost like
19:38an obsession, but it's not like that, the opposite is true, I enjoy it. Even when I cut a
19:46finish line, they hang a gold medal around my neck, along with the pleasure of that moment
19:51nostalgia also comes for what you did to get there. Because if you loved that
19:58path, inevitably you already miss having completed it. Curiosity is needed to aim towards new
20:05horizons. It's curiosity that has pushed me to look around even in the most difficult moments.
20:12of my life and to transform what had happened into an opportunity.
20:23The race is crazy, it's exhausting. It's a thousand times more so because the course in Hawaii is full of
20:30pitfalls,
20:32crazy temperature that hits you. It's the length of the test, the wind, which changes in
20:40continuation and sadistically enjoys holding you back because it inspires you against it at every stage
20:47of the cycling portion. At least that's my experience in the two years I've participated.
20:53It's true that at almost 50 years old the body no longer responds as it once did, but you've already moved on
20:59many times from difficult situations and by holding on in the end you brought home the result
21:04that you dreamed of. So it's an exercise that you don't always succeed in, but those 5 seconds in which
21:09close your eyes and say there's still something I can give, sometimes they are fundamental.
21:17Those 5 seconds are there in everything, in work, in affections, in relationships with people.
21:24It's the very idea of trying to give something else at the moment when you thought you had
21:29you've already given everything or you thought you had. When you then bring home a result that you
21:37surprises become almost a drug that you can no longer do without, you go looking for them
21:42anywhere in those 5 seconds.
22:06If it's true that the body doesn't respond as before, well, no one notices. Alex more
22:11he gets older and better, like a good wine he starts to joke about it on the threshold of 50
22:15years. Here are the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.
22:18Here are the games, here are the games, here are the games.
22:51These are the games of consecration. His new category is H5 but for Zanardi it is a
22:56two more gold medals and a silver medal arrive, even if it is not from these details
23:01that a sample is measured.
23:55I think his new category is his new category.
23:56that it is an icon of the Paralympic movement not only in Italy but internationally. In these
24:00I am also in contact with the international organization because it is news beyond
24:05how painful, dramatic, but which naturally saddens the whole world because Alex knew
24:11represent the symbol of the Italian Paralympic movement. For us it represented the consecration
24:18after London of that hard work that we had done up to then and that then finally found
24:23an extraordinary champion who could play all roles.
24:28Can we say that it has erased disability?
24:33But he naturally continues to give a positive narrative of disability, declined in a positive way.
24:41Ultimately, it is the essence and synthesis of what Paralympic sport aims to be.
24:46He embodies it perfectly. So he is helping and has helped and will continue to help the world.
24:53Paralympic, the world of disability as a whole, to a new, different, fresh, winning image.
24:59Did you expect it or was it a completely unexpected phenomenon? Because really when we say
25:05he erased disability, we also talk about prejudices, fears, all sorts of things
25:10something that revolves around the Paralympic world. He has completely turned all of that upside down.
25:17Alex turns it upside down because he presents himself for who he is, without filters, with great serenity.
25:27As do most of our Paralympic sayings today. Of course, he's Alex today.
25:33This is why he has entered the hearts of all Italians and beyond.
25:37But I also like to say that Zanardi is just a very exposed man. In reality, people
25:44like Zanardi, they are the majority of those who in life have to reorganise themselves to face
25:53all in an alternative way.
25:54It's just a head
26:03It's just a head
26:12It's just a head
26:21It's just a head
26:23The desire to turn your head and look for it is a positive example that can also be
26:27a wonderful mother who gets up with a fever of 38.5 but still works in the morning
26:32because there's a family to feed. It's not just Zanardi who reaches you on the news
26:38midnight because he has shot off yet another firework of his life and so there is someone
26:46who has to report for the record yet another of Zanardi's ideas.
26:51When I was asked to be the narrator of this evening I thought that the best place
26:56To do this, this was the shed where I train. A place of the soul where I gather my strength,
27:02I prepare my strategies, I color my dreams. A symbolic yet real place because
27:09behind a victory before the joy and the smile there is work, sacrifice, fear of not being able to win
27:15to make it and the desire to improve every day.
27:19Pilot, athlete, Paralympic champion and inevitably also a symbol, Zanardi has things to say but not
27:25He doesn't accept any pedestal. Only his curiosity, which is impossible to extinguish,
27:30leads him to explore other roles still, that of television man, especially with the
27:34broadcast challenges and even that of a voice actor.
27:52And the roar of the engines has not stopped
27:54playing in Zanardi's mind, he is no longer that child who dreams of F1, engines
27:59In the meantime they have taken on a more electronic tone. The new big challenge, in January 2019, is
28:34it's called the 24 Hours of Daytona.
28:35Zanardi and certainly for this reason I started driving cars, I had the privilege
28:40to be able to transform it into a profession and today I find it as both things, where however
28:46the sense of passion emerges even more clearly precisely because it is something that
28:49I don't do it that often. So I'll be in Daytona next end of January for the 24 Hours of
28:55I drive the official BMW M8 and I'm very, very homely.
29:16Today the machines are very sophisticated, but all this also presents additional complications.
29:22for such an analogical type as I am, who is asked to change the box
29:27certain parameters and each time you have to find the tool, manage the most and the most
29:31less, send the OK, like they send it. It's like working on a computer while you're driving.
29:36at 300 km/h and while with your hands you are called upon to manage gear changes, brakes, accelerator.
29:43In America they love you very much.
29:45There are so many people who remember the things they were able to do here with the team.
29:50of Ganassi when I was racing in IndyCar and who came today perhaps just for
29:55hug me again. But I truly feel a participation at all levels surrounding my return.
30:02in the United States that is conventional. It's something that goes completely beyond what I myself
30:08I could expect.
30:11Between one acrobatic change and another, more than one inconvenience compromises the crew's race
30:16number 24. But here it was important to still be there to be up to the task, even under
30:21the flood.
30:22I was out, let's say, in the worst moments, fortunately only on pills because then we had
30:28I did a lot of laps under the yellow flag. But also behind the safety car in those
30:32moments, guys, it was hard to stay straight. It was impressive. At 80 km/h, keeping straight
30:39The car was really a feat. So when I got out at that moment I said starting tomorrow
30:44I'm sure I'll miss this moment, but right now I'm glad it's over.
30:55Thank you.
31:03Thank you.
31:21Please.
31:43It comes to mind when our great president Sergio Mattarella received all the athletes
31:49Olympic and Paralympic, the gardens of the Quirinale, all medalists. At a certain point in his
31:55speech he put down the paper and to give strength to the concept he was passing he called me in
32:00cause. Then I felt like everyone was watching me, obviously it's normally flattered, but I felt like
32:06with everyone's eyes on me, I turned to my companion and said to myself, but how many do I have?
32:09I got cheated in life.
32:11He is a beacon, a beacon because he gave voice to this movement which is great, it exists, but
32:17He really needed a spokesperson. He made disability a little more accessible and he was
32:24his arrival in this world is fundamental, along with his personality and his way of doing things.
32:30to grow and bring light to the Paralympic world.
32:35When I talk about Alex I get a lump in my throat, an incredible lump in my throat. Something that in these
32:43At that time we were in symbiosis with Alex, with the whole national team. We were there having breakfast,
32:53lunch, dinner, down at the workshop, all afternoon until evening, before going to dinner.
33:01And I miss Alex, your basalettes, your stories with your father, when you didn't tell us
33:10of your past with go-karts, look, I really miss those days.
33:16and they immediately steal.
33:37I participated, awarded by alleomare.
34:00The rest is recent history, the race towards Tokyo, the desire above all to grow
34:05with the goal of 3 more talents and other stories to deliver to the Paralympic world.
34:11Dearest Alessandro, through sport you taught us to live life as protagonists by doing
34:16of disability a lesson in humanity, thank you for giving strength to those who had it
34:20lost. Pope Francis wrote this in the darkest days in a letter published by the Gazzetta
34:26of Sport. Words that leave a mark and clearly explain how indelible the mark is
34:31left by Zanardi. Alex, more than what he taught, is what he represented.
34:36and what he represents. He represents the challenge, he represents the challenge with his life. He is the athlete.
34:44with his vision, this indomitable desire to always be active, to get involved
34:50game, to deal with things.
34:52In everything that happens in life there is never only good or only bad, there are
34:56always both. Once again it is curiosity that pushes us to dig, perhaps
35:01find that little bit of good hidden under so much filth that covers it. You have to have the
35:08strength to persist, to not give up. At least when, after having reasoned
35:14very careful, you believe it is actually possible to do it.
35:35At least when, after having reasoned
35:57that a reasoning begins
36:02that there is no starting point. At least when, after having reasoned
36:15and there are starting. At least when, after having reasoned
36:27It's just revival
36:59It's just revival
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