“Curiosity is all you need in life.”
Alex Zanardi, the Paralympic champion and former race car driver, was recently invited on the David Letterman Show, one of the very few Italian personalities ever invited on the legendary talk show, during which he spoke about the accident that resulted in the amputation of both of his legs and his first reunion with the doctor who saved his life.
Zanardi is an inspiration to many: he returned to racing less than two years after the violent accident at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz in 2001, during a CART race, that cost him his legs.
He later retired from car racing and took up competition in handcycling, a form of paralympic cycling, with the goal of representing Italy at the 2012 Summer Paralympics. He not only participated, but also won the gold medal.
“You can take every day as a new opportunity to add something to your life and day after day you may end up in London winning a gold medal at the Olympic Games,” he said to Letterman.
One of his latest accomplishments, which he discussed on the show, is completing the 2014 Ironman World Championship. He finished the race in 9 hours and 47 minutes, ranking 272nd overall and 19th out of 247 in the 45-49 year category. He used a handbike for the cycling section and an Olympic wheelchair for the running section.
