Alex Zanardi, the ever-green race-driver-turned-Paralympian, continues his recovery and is finally able to speak to his family once again. The 53-year-old has been recuperating following what can only be described as a heinous crash that took place in June 2020 while the two-time CART champ was racing on his handbike. The collision with a truck, which occurred during the 'Obiettivo Tricolore' relay race, put Zanardi in an artificially-induced coma but the most recent reports coming out of Italy prove once again that there's no stopping Zanardi.

Zanardi is a real-life superhero

It was all the way back in 2001 that Alex Zanardi lost both of his legs in an accident at Lausitzring in Germany during a CART race.

However, that's exactly what happened and now, two decades later, Zanardi is most likely fighting to do it all over again. Those that suggest Alex wouldn't want to return to the cockpit of a race car if he fully recovers from his most recent woes simply don't know the Italian.

The word 'legend' gets tossed around too much nowadays and is often spoken in the same breath with names of people that don't deserve to be bestowed by such honor of being called legends. But Alex Zanardi has earned the right to be called a legend tenfold. He's also been referred to as a real-life superhero and he's certainly living up to it these days as he fights to recover from another crash that threatened to put an abrupt and grim end to the Zanardi story.

The latest reports from his native Italy are encouraging for all of us that love racing or, simply, that love witnessing a true fighting spirit soldier on as if adversity was lacking for his or her dictionary. After a number of complicated brain surgeries, Zanardi was able to respond to doctors via hand signals and, most recently, he's been able to speak with members of his own family after undertaking yet another waking surgery that the Italian endured fully alert.

"It was a great emotion when he started talking, no one believed it. He was there! And he communicated with his family," said Dr. Federica Alemanno, who performed the surgery, quoted by Italian outlet Autosprint. While this shows that Zanardi's mental capacity hasn't been damaged irreparably, it's still impossible to tell if he will be able to make a full recovery given that a number of reconstructive surgeries to his face are still needed and perhaps more brain surgeries as well. In any case, Alex has not only surprised his doctors by bouncing back so rapidly from a brutal crash but has also earned him even more bucketloads of respect from us all.

How the latest twist in Zanardi's tale took place

A return to racing became paramount for former F1 and CART star Zanardi the day that he left the hospital following his Lausitzring crash. He got the chance to complete the 13 laps of the Lausitzring circuit that he never did on the day of his life-changing shunt during the German 500 race weekend of 2003. Using bespoke prosthetic legs and hand-operated controls, Zanardi clocked in a lap that would've been good enough for fifth on the grid for the actual race.

In spite of that, he made his racing return later that same year together with BMW in the Monza round of the European Touring Car Championship. The motorsport division of the Bavarian automaker was enthusiastic to help Zanardi return to the circuits and designed a unique BMW 320si to match his needs. A ring behind the wheel was mounted that acted as the gas pedal and the brake pedal was actually still down in the footwell as he could operate it with his prosthetic leg that he moved using his hip. Later on, the paddles for both upshifting and downshifting were placed on the same side so that they could be operated with one hand. The original E46-generation 3 Series BMW featured a more old-fashioned sequential gearbox with a floor-mounted shifter.

The team operated under the BMW Italy-Spain banner with the likes of Antonio Garcia or Jordi Gene at the other end of the garage. A sixth-place finish at the year-ending Dubai double-header was the highlight of Alex's first full season of touring car racing but better things were waiting around the corner. And by better things we mean race wins.

He notched up his first win - in what became the World Touring Car Championship for 2005 - at the tight and twisty Oschersleben course in Germany, keeping Andy Priaulx (BMW Team UK) and Joerg Mueller (BMW Team Germany) behind him in the closing stages of the 14-lap thriller. Thrilled with the amazing result, Zanardi celebrating by executing his signature donuts that he'd made popular during his CART days over in the States. During his tenure in the WTCC, Zanardi would go on to score three additional wins (at Istanbul in 2006 and Brno in 2008 and 2009), the last of which came in his goodbye season. While his WTCC results never afforded him the chance to fight for the title (at a time when BMW was the dominant force thanks to Andy Priaulx and the Muellers), he did win the Italian Superturismo Championship in 2005 with eight victories from 12 races.

15 years later, 2020 greeted Zanardi with a few opportunities in the form of some hand biking events. Since losing his legs, Zanardi began to look at ways to race beyond the confines of a race car and found out that he could excel at hand biking. With no less than four gold and two silver medals bagged at the 2012 and the 2016 editions of the Paralympic Games, as well as a plethora of gold medals in world championship-level hand biking events (no less than 12 over the course of a decade) he has become a legendary figure among Paralympians.

It was during a hand biking race in native Italy on June 19th, 2020, that the accident happened, Zanardi reportedly losing control of his bike and coming into the path of a heavy vehicle that couldn't avoid him. The first reports were grim with the AP quoting the hospital's telegraphic bulletin: " neurological surgery to reduce the fracture and is in very severe conditions."

"Twenty minutes passed from the time of the accident to when the medical personnel arrived," said Mario Valentini, the coach of Italy's national team quoted at the time by the local press. "It took some time to load him (into the ambulance). His wife helped. After the accident he was talking," Valentini added to everyone's momentary relief.

Despite that, the early signs were hard to swallow as it became apparent that Zanardi had suffered extensive injuries to his face and there was also the looming potential of irreversible neurological damage, which was the reason behind the decision to place him in a medically induced coma. The first updates regarding his health came in July when the hospital that first took him in declared that, "his clinical condition allowed for the possibility to be transferred to a facility where he can receive neuro-rehabilitation."

Shortly thereafter, Zanardi was rushed back to the ICU in what was described as an "unstable" condition. Fortunately, his state improved, and in the next update which dropped in August via the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, we learned that Zanardi is showing "significant clinical improvements".

He was then moved to a care facility closer to home in November after a few months that included time spent "undertaking a path of physical and cognitive rehabilitation." The first signs of progress in that area became apparent by the end of 2020 when the media reported that Zanardi regained his sight and his hearing and was thus able to communicate with the care staff via hand signals.

We are now eagerly waiting for more news on Zanardi's recovery and maybe, just maybe, the next update will come directly from the legend's mouth - now that he's able to speak once again!