Italian auto racing champion-turned-Paralympic gold medalist Alex Zanardi has died at 59. His life was marked by two life-altering accidents. Zanardi’s family announced his death on Saturday saying that he passed away on Friday night. The family says in a statement that “Alex died peacefully surrounded by the affection of those closest to him.” In 2020 Zanardi was seriously injured in a handbike accident after crashing into an oncoming truck during a relay event in Tuscany. Zanardi suffered serious facial and cranial trauma in the crash and was put in a medically induced coma. Nearly 20 years earlier Zanardi lost both of his legs in an auto racing crash.