The Olympic and Paralympic Games are being held in Paris as motorsport has a link to the latter through star driver Alessandro Zanardi.
One of the top race drivers of the 1990s, Zanardi reached the pinnacle of Formula 1 relatively early in his career replacing Roberto Moreno in the final three races of the 1991 season at Jordan.
Drives with Minardi came the next year and Lotus in its dying days before changing his focus to America where he joined Chip Ganassi Racing in the CART Championship.
Rookie of the Year honours were achieved in 1995 before back-to-back titles in 1997 and 1998 before Formula 1 came calling via Williams in 1999.
It wasn’t a great time to join the legendary team as Zanardi was on a downward ebb after the withdrawal of Renault and just prior to BMW’s involvement.
Disaster occurred when he returned to CART for a second stint at the turn of the millennium when at EuroSpeedway Lausitz, Zanardi on cold tyres lost control exiting pit lane into the path of Patrick Carpentier and Alex Tagliani. Although Carpentier avoided Zanardi, Tagliani did not resulting in a frightening incident.
The result was Zanardi losing both legs, one above and the other below the knees.
Zanardi’s journey is remarkable from here as he designed his own prosthetic limbs and continued his racing career in touring cars using hand controls where he won multiple times on the world stage.
Another sport Zanardi’s passion was directed to was handcycling.
Fourth in the New York City Marathon after just four weeks training proved a promising start to Zanardi’s career.
It was only a matter of time until Zanardi scored a Gold Medal, which he did at the Paralympic Games in London contesting the Men’s Road Time Trial H4 in 2012.
He made it two Gold Medals a couple of days by winning the Individual H4 Road Race, then he achieved a Silver Medal in the Mixed Team Relay H1-4.
These achievements led Zanardi to be voted the best male athlete at the 2012 London Paralympics.
Backing up his results from London, four years later in Rio de Janeiro Zanardi took Gold in the H5 Road Cycling Men’s Time Trial and Mixed Team Relay as he also achieved Silver in the Men’s Road Race.
Zanardi’s record is one many athletes envy and added to his motorsport achievements ensure he will be a long lasting inspiration.