Gold medal moment for Alex Zanardi at Brands Hatch
Alex Zanardi crosses the
line to secure the Road Race gold medal
Alex Zanardi’s gold medal heroics during the road cycling races
at Brands Hatch have been voted the number one moment of the 2012
Paralympic Games by the International Paralympic Committee
(IPC).
Zanardi secured two gold medals and one silver during the
competition at Brands Hatch, and images of him raising his
handcycle aloft in victory were beamed around the world to millions
of viewers.
The gold medals also marked Zanardi’s first victory at the Kent
venue, having claimed podium finishes in his previous motorsport
career at the circuit in Formula 3000 (1991) and World Touring Cars
(2008).
The former-F1 driver was critically injured in a CART crash in
Germany in 2001 which saw him lose both legs at the knee.
After making a recovery that defied medical logic, he returned
to racing with prosthetic legs until 2009 when he announced he
would be switching disciplines to handcycling with the intention of
competing at the London 2012 Games.
Zanardi said: “Motorsport should be my speciality, not so much
handcycling, but when they announced that handcycling was going to
take place at Brands Hatch it was one of the crucial things that
emotionally made me think ‘yeah this is my place’.
“In reality you know that the tarmac you’re covering is the same
for every one of us but it felt certainly more special.”
03/01/13