Back at the 2005 Laureus World Sports Award, it was the inspiring Alessandro Zanardi’s remarkable courage that won him the Comeback of the Year Award.
This was following his return to motor racing having lost both his legs in a horrific crash just four years earlier.
Zanardi receives his award from Teri Hatcher
His 2001 accident in the European Memorial CART race in Lausitz, Germany was one of the worst ever seen.
His car spun coming out of the pits and was hit by another coming down the straight at 200mph. The impact was so great that his vehicle was ripped in two.
Demonstrating incredible commitment and passion, Zanardi returned to motor racing in October 2003 and went on to complete a full season in the European Touring Car championship in 2004.
On his return, he drove a specially adapted car in which the throttle was mounted on the upper part of the steering wheel, the brake pedal was shaped to prevent the driver’s artificial limb from losing grip, whilst the clutch actuated through a button on the gear lever.
Though his return to his sport in this way made him worthy of recognition by the Laureus Academy, Zanardi’s journey following this has gone on to show how inspirational a figure he truly is.
Though he retired from motor racing in 2009, it certainly wasn’t because he was finished with sport altogether.
That’s because he would now focus on the new sport he had adopted since 2007: hand cycling.
From the very start, success came remarkably quickly.
In 2007 he achieved 4th place in the New York City Marathon in the handcycle division after only four weeks of training.
By the end of 2011, however, Zanardi had finally won the New York Marathon at his fourth attempt. He added this first place finish to previous victories at the Venice Marathon in 2009 and the Rome Marathon in 2010.
Perhaps his most exciting achievement of the past year, however, has been his qualifying to race for the Italian team at the London 2012 Paralympics.
Zanardi may be approaching 46 by the time the Games come around later this year, but considering his achievements so far, it’s a safe bet he will be chasing nothing but gold.
South African sporting legend Oscar Pistorius, the man known as the Blade Runner, celebrated becoming the newest member of the Laureus Friends & Ambassadors programme, by announcing his goal is to compete in both the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games
A brilliant Paralympic sprinter, Pistorius, 23, a double amputee who runs with the aid of carbon fibre artificial lower legs, has been breaking down barriers between disabled and able-bodied sport, famously winning a court case in 2008 which allowed him to compete in top level able-bodied sport.
In the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing, he won gold medals at 100 metres, 200 metres and 400 metres in the T44 category, but failed to reach the qualifying time for the 400 metres in the Olympic Games.
Pistorius, speaking in Manchester where he is competing in the 2010 Paralympic World Cup, said: “This is a very special day for me. I am honoured to become a member of the Laureus Family. I know what it is to struggle to achieve something against the odds and there is nothing more important for successful sportsmen and women than to help young people who may have the cards stacked against them in life.
“2012 is a really big goal for me. Coming to London for the Paralympic and Olympic Games would be a dream that I’ve been chasing for the last five years. In 2008 I was a quarter of a second away from qualifying for the Olympics, but this time I’m sure that’s going to happen.
“I’m still quite young, so I think with the experience I need to gain over the next two years, whether it be to rest in a better fashion or diet better or train smarter, these are all things that are going to help me bring my time down, so I’m pretty confident I will be able to make the London 2012 qualification times. I’ll definitely be pushing for it,” he added.
Pistorius will be going for the 400 metres in the 2012 Olympics, as he feels he has more chance of reaching the qualifying time in that distance rather than his stronger Paralympic events, the 100 and 200 metres. He said: “So I will be going for the 400 metres at the able-bodied Olympics, plus four events at the Paralympics – the 100, 200 and 400 metres and the relay.”
Welcoming Pistorius as a Laureus Friend & Ambassador, Edwin Moses, Chairman of the Laureus World Sports Academy, said: “I am delighted to be able to welcome Oscar as one of our Laureus ambassadors. He is a very passionate competitor and as we all know a fighter for what he believes in. We are very lucky that in addition to pursuing his highly successful career he also wants to devote his energy and commitment to Laureus. I know he will be an energetic worker for the causes that the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation supports.”
Pistorius was born with congenital absence of the fibula in both legs. When he was 11-months-old, his legs were amputated halfway between his knees and ankles. A sports fanatic, between the ages of 11 and 13, he played rugby union, tennis, water polo and wrestling. He was introduced to running in January 2004 and began to make an immediate impact in the Paralympic world, coming first in the 200 metres and third in the 100 metres in the Athens Paralympic Games that year. In the 2005 Paralympic World Cup he won gold in the 100 and 200 metres and the following year at the Paralympic World Championships he won gold in 100, 200 and 400 metres.
Pistorius made a historic sporting breakthrough in 2007 when he competed in two non-disabled races. On July 13, he ran in the 400 metres at Rome’s Golden Gala and finished second with a time of 46.90 secs behind Stefano Braciola’s time of 46.72 secs. Two days later at the Norwich Union British Grand Prix in Sheffield he finished seventh in 47.65 secs.
He said then his goal was to compete in the Olympic Games. However, his artificial lower legs, while enabling him to compete, generated claims that he had an unfair advantage over able-bodied runners. The same year, the International Association of Athletics Federations amended its competition rules to ban the use of a ‘technical device that incorporates springs, wheels or any other element that provides a user with an advantage over another athlete.’ The IAAF ruled him ineligible for competition, including the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
However Pistorius appealed and the decision was reversed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in May 2008, the court ruling that the IAAF had not provided sufficient evidence to prove that Pistorius’s prostheses give him an advantage over able-bodied athletes.
Although eligible to compete in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Pistorius did not qualify for the South African team. Despite achieving third place and a personal best of 46.25 seconds in the 400 metres in Lucerne in July, this was short of the Olympic qualification time.
In 2006, Pistorius was conferred with the Order of Ikhamanga in bronze by the President of South Africa for outstanding sporting achievement. In December 2007 he was presented with the BBC Helen Rollason Award which is conferred for outstanding courage and achievement in the face of adversity. And in 2008 he was nominated for the Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year Award.
Laureus Alpino Project Launch
Schaffhausen, 4 February 2010
The Laureus Foundation Switzerland launched the Laureus Alpino ski sports project on Thursday 4 February. The starting signal was given in the Axalp ski resort in Bernese Oberland, Switzerland, in the presence of Laureus Ambassador and former Olympic snowboarding champion Gian Simmen and professional ski racer Michael Brügger (who is getting ready to participate in the 2010 Paralympic Games in Vancouver). Both professional sportsmen visited the children at the Laureus Alpino Ski Camp, run in partnership with Plusport, to enable children with physical disabilities to take part in snow sports.
Michael Brügger and Gian Simmen both know what it means to make the most of your abilities and to strengthen them with willpower, strength and commitment. Their visit to the Laureus Alpino project allowed them to pass on their experience and enjoyment of snow sports to the younger generation. Read more
