Wednesday, December 29, 2021
Ski drama shakes his life
When Schumacher had such a fatal accident
Michael Schumacher disappeared dramatically from the public eight years ago. His skiing accident almost cost him his life. Since then, the Formula 1 legend has lived in seclusion with his family. A moment divides everything into before and after.
The very first reports in the early afternoon of that December 29, 2013 did not give rise to undue concern. Michael Schumacher, according to the radio station Europe 1, suffered a concussion in a skiing accident in the French Alps. Radio Monte Carlo quoted Christophe Gernignon-Lecomte, the director of the Meribel ski station, who confirmed that the record Formula 1 world champion had been flown to a hospital by helicopter for safety.
A few hours later, the fear for the German Formula 1 idol grew almost by the minute. Late in the evening of the same day it was clear: Michael Schumacher is fighting for his life. According to an official announcement, he suffered “head trauma with a coma that immediately required neurosurgical treatment” in the momentous fall.
Interest unbroken
Even eight years later, the moment when a worry became a bitter certainty is still hard to grasp. The life-threatening dimension of Schumacher’s skiing accident hit the motorsport world to the core. The difficult path of the 91-time Grand Prix winner is still accompanied by wild speculations about his condition, but also by good wishes and emotional memories.
What the public knows is easy to tell. Schumacher has been treated at home since September 2014 after a severe traumatic brain injury, several operations and waking up from an artificial coma. The interest in the condition of the man who led Formula 1 in Germany to unimagined heights continues to be enormous – and is repeatedly exploited for the big headlines.
Michael Schumacher himself should remain as undisturbed as possible, for his own good and that of his family. In spite of this, or perhaps because of it, the interest in the tragic fate of the sports icon remains unbroken. On the fate of the man who survived more than 300 races in Formula 1 without any really bad accidents. And then fell so unhappily while skiing with family and friends that it divided his life into a before and an after.