LONDON -- Alex Zanardi just loves to race. But what he really likes to do is win.

The former Formula One driver took the Paralympic gold medal Wednesday in paracycling -- a hand cycle powered by the arms -- at the Brands Hatch race track, posting a time of 24 minutes, 50.22 seconds.

The victory capped an incredible journey for the 45-year-old who almost died in a horrific accident at a 2001 CART race in Germany.

"It's an amazing feeling," a clearly exuberant Zanardi said. "I'm really, really happy for the result."

Alex Zanardi called winning the paracycling gold medal Wednesday at the London Paralympics an "amazing feeling."
Zanardi celebrated by sliding out of his cycle and lifting it over his head with one hand and raising his other arm, fist clenched, to the sky.

It was unusual. It was on purpose.

"I'm Alex Zanardi," he said with a huge grin, his Italian accent dragging each syllable. "I always have to come up with something. I have a little bit of a big head."

Zanardi's journey to the Paralympics began at the American Memorial 500 on Sept. 15, 2001, at the Eurospeedway Lausitz in Germany -- the only American-based series to go forward on the weekend after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks...

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