Turning your greatest defeat into your greatest victory (NQM007)
In the short year I have been following IronMan racing, one particular athlete has stood out to me above everybody else. Its not Patrick Lange with his sub 2:41 marathon time after already covering 114.4 miles, or Daniela Ryf who stunned with her fourth (!) Kona victory in a row this past weekend. Its Alex Zanardi.
As a kid growing up in Europe, I used to follow Formula 1 pretty closely. I had heard of Zanardi as he raced for Lotus and Jordan in the early 90s and then again for Williams in the late 90s. I did not follow the CART series, but was horrified to see his 2001 crash at the Lausitzring and his resulting injuries (double traumatic amputations above the knee). Zanardi has been through hell and back, all with that characteristic smile and unwavering positivity and love for life. He is a man we can all learn a lot from.
Zanardi bounced back from his injuries incredibly fast. He returned to racing less than 2 years later in a specially modified car, and by 2005 was racing in the World Touring Car Championship competing against top professional drivers. He transitioned to hand cycling soon after his racing career. Being the professional athlete and incredible fighter he is, he added 2 gold medals and a silver in both the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Paralympics.
He first competed in triathlon at the Kona Championship in 2014, finishing in 9:47:14 (not bad for his first overall triathlon!!). He ended up breaking the 9 hour barrier at the 2017 Barcelona IronMan with a time of 8:58:59. He lives his life by his two philosophies. First, treat every single day as an opportunity to learn something new, to not waste the valuable time we are given. And second, fight for 20th place just as hard as you would fight for 1st place. Because without that mentally it’s hard to get to 19th, and even harder to get to 18th. And damn near impossible to be in a position to fight for 1st.
Zanardi is one of the most positive and life-loving people you’ll ever hear talk, and he has shared a lot of great insight to life on multiple occasions. Bob Babbitt had an excellent conversation with him on his BabbittVille Podcast, with some of the highlights below.
On small improvements: “It helped the fact that I was in terrible pain. Words cannot describe the pain I was in. But the reason why the pain helped was because I knew the worst was behind me. And now it was just a matter of improving every day, every hour, every second. Every one of those seconds granted me the opportunity for a small improvement. One small improvement at a time, relentless, and one day I opened my eyes and I crossed the finish line at the London Paralympics winning my first gold medal.”
On knowing where you want to go: “We live in a world where technology can answer a lot of questions. But you have to have your own questions. And you cannot find the right questions if you are not curious, if you don’t know where you want to go. Other people around us are important, since they inspire us. But ultimately it becomes the time where we have to make a decision. What do I really want to do in my life? Where do I want to go?”
On the love of the process: “When I crossed the finish line (first Kona triathlon in 2014), sure I was proud of the result and of being called an ironman, but I was also sad because it was the end of the adventure. That’s why when I do something, I try to prepare well because preparation is the fun part. Getting ready, executing the project, is the most exciting thing. When you cross the line, its arrivederci.”
