Wins another gold medal, IMO. A true hero

Now there’s a genuine legend.

😀

With the utmost respect is he a hero or a legend? He led a privileged life, had an horrendous accident, and has overcome adversity.

Many many many other Paralympians (arguably all of them) have at least done the last one, many on the back of the second one, few with the ‘benefit’ of the first one.

A top sportsman, and a role model perhaps, dunno…

Steady there njee – you are opening the STW can of worms trying to define legend and hero

Let’s not forget the story of him towing the lad who couldn’t complete a race they were in together.
I’ll find the link.
He is a hero in my book
( very average f1 driver though)

He’s a brass-plated 5-star legend. I saw the thread title and it worried me for a moment as I’ve not followed this year’s Olympics.

Privileged? Or utterly driven? How many of us (Inc me) would sink into depression. He didn’t.

Privileged?

He was an F1 driver. So yes. Driven as well, of course, but privileged.

Totally agree he’s an inspiration, and I’m not honestly sure why I’m saying I’m not sure he qualifies for hero or legend status, maybe he does. Dunno. Like I said. Doubt I can really add much, I’ll duck out.

Goggle what his father’s profession was. For me, he worked at it.

I’m with you @hora. I read about and follow Martyn Ashton’s story and am in awe. I am pretty certain I couldn’t cope. Quotes from Zinardi below;

“When you find yourself in a certain situation you have to identify where you want to go and focus on what you can achieve on that given day.

“Whether it is a small thing or big one, step-by-step you can make things happen.

“At the time I was asked if I would ever step back in a race car, but what was very important for me was to go into the bathroom and pee on my own, but I could not do that.

“I had to be helped. That was my number one priority. Day by day I managed to regain control and strength, regain some confidence and concentrate on different things and here I am now.”

BBC Story

If you’ve had an injury (something that kept you off you bike for a few weeks) think back to how hard it was to recover from, now think about how you’d cope with the loss of your legs doing something you loved that you’ll never do again. Recovering from that to excel at anything is to me beyond labels and descriptions. It brought a smile to my face to see him winning yet again.

I remember hearing a story about him post-accident when his wife took it upon herself to tell him he’d lost his legs (pretty amazing person herself!). Not an easy thing to do – all that effort, all that talent, all that promise, and as far as they knew, that was his career ended on the spot. His instant reaction? “As long as I have you and Niccolo (their son), I don’t care.” That’s a special person, makes me well up to think about it now, which says nothing of his exploits since.

a hero is someone who is an inspiration to others because of their achievements.
it is a subjective term so he might not be your hero, but he is a hero to plenty of others.
if you heard Alex Brooker’s testimony on the Last Leg last night you might have heard why he is a hero.

if you heard Alex Brooker’s testimony on the Last Leg last night you might have seen why he is a hero.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAXBOcv6AS4[/video]

Yes. So much bloody yes, I think I’ll run out of it.

YES.

Thanks for that

I watched him race at Brands Hatch in 1991 in F3000 when I was in a support race and I bumped into him in the paddock. he was clearly on his way to bigger and better things and I was a nobody but he still shook my hand and asked about my race. I followed his career and was so sad and shocked when he had his crash.

I also watched him at Brands in 2008 in his modified WTCC BMW I didn’t meet him but saw him in the paddock and again his personality just shone.

My main reason for going to the Paralympics cycling at Brands in 2012 was to see him and I was so happy when he got his gold.

Such an inspiration and a truly humble gentleman. For me he is a legend, a hero and whilst I just don’t have the eloquence of Alex Brooker I can’t think of many people more worthy of those titles.

Such an inspiration and a truly humble gentleman. For me he is a legend, a hero and whilst I just don’t have the eloquence of Alex Brooker I can’t think of many people more worthy of those titles.

Couldn’t have put it better myself.

I don’t get njee’s stance on this at all. To me Zanardi is beyond hero worship, I genuinely wouldn’t know what to say to the bloke if I met him!

Why? Well I was a big F1 fan as a kid, but it wasn’t his exploits in an F1. Good as he was, he wasn’t Senna. He turned his hand to tin tops and was pretty good, but again just another pretty decent driver from Italy in an era when there was lots of them. His accident raised his profile of course, especially as he was to eventually not only get back in a car and race, but be highly competitive despite his obvious disadvantage showed real courage. But not content with that, he decides to take on another passion of his (cycling) and despite his advancing years, decides to give himself a new challenge, that being to represent his country at the olympics in the sport of hand cycling. And he wins the gold bloody medal! And now he’s done it again…

If ever anybody exemplified the power of a positive mental attitude in the face of real adversity more than Zanardi has, then please let me know. The guy is a truly inspirational, the word Legend is often overused, but I genuinely can’t think of anyone more deserving of the title!

I have to say the room got a little dusty when watching Martyn Ashton – Back on Track

I’ve genuinely been thinking about this, because I couldn’t decide how I felt about it, and I’m normally a very decisive person, and that annoyed me. I was wrong. For all of the reasons above. None of the recent posts have mentioned his Rio achievements. He is a legend and a hero, but not (or at least not just) for winning in Rio. He’s an extraordinary chap, almost to the extent that a Paralympic medal is verging on insignificant, and he is surrounded by others with similar stories. He stands out more away from his Olympic achievements.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX_hn3Xf90g[/video] 😀

I read that at one point Zinardi had less than 1litre of blood in his body. **** hell

There is a picture of the moment after his smash. I won’t link it as it’s pretty awful; it’s when his legs are leaving. He was incredibly lucky to survive at all. It was close to being curtains.

To be a happy human being after such a trauma is amazing; more so that he is excelling in something else.

Some people will always be dreary about it. I think it’s astonishing.

All the money and privilege in the world doesn’t buy you the mental toughness needed to achieve what he has.

Some people will be champions, sporting or not, no matter what life throws at them.

So, it’s a yes from me.

Privileged? Built his first kart himself out of wheels he found in a dustbin and pipe from the factory his father worked in. Got into F1 despite being a very average driver, that must have taken some grit and determination. He set that goal and achieved it. Yes as an F1 driver he was then “privileged” but he worked to be in that position. Its a bit of stupid circular argument.

Sorry, I wasn’t referring specifically to him.

I work with people with acquired brain injuries.
They all come from very, very different backgrounds.
They all receive the same, appropriate level of rehabilitation care.

Ime, there’s no specific correlation between someone’s background and the amount of effort they are willing to put into the rehabilitation process.
It’s very much down to the individual.
The attitude of close family makes a huge difference too.

Bit steep to call him an “average” driver – European F3 champion, runner-up in F3000, twice CART champion. Mostly drove rubbish in F1, though, and went to Williams as they started to nosedive.

Hero, Legend, whatever label you want to apply to him is justified IMO.

There was an article in one of the motorsport magazines (F1 Racing?) that had an interview with one of the medics who dealt with him in the immediate aftermath of the crash. He described how they tried, in vain, to stop the whole of his blood supply falling out of what was left of his legs. They all honestly thought he was bleeding to death in seconds right in front of them. It was one of the worst things I’ve read even though I knew he made it. It was brought home even more when you realise that what had just taken a few minutes to read actually happened in seconds in real life, no time for them to think. I got to meet Zanardi at Brands Hatch when he was racing WTCC on the pitwalk and it was obvious the guy was overwhelmed slightly with the support. There was a man in the crowd who was in a wheelchair, he was brought to the front of the crowd (by the crowd) to meet his hero and I didn’t hear what was said but the two talked for a minute then embraced followed by a massive round of applause. Was told afterwards that the fan had lost his legs around the same time as Zanardi and that he’d used his progress to give him the strength to get back on with his life.

That seems a much better role model than some vacuous blonde on a reality TV show or some overpaid primadonna footballer.

Oh and that Alex Brooker tribute above is brilliant 😀