Michael Schumacher: The Tragic Skiing Accident and His Ongoing Battle – What We Know and What We Don’t

2023-12-30 18:28:57

On December 29, 2013, Michael Schumacher (54) had an accident while skiing in Méribel (France). Ten long years of hoping, fearing, praying. Millions of fans around the world are wondering, especially these days: How is “Schumi”, the great Michael Schumacher, really doing? BILD gives an overview of the tragic accident and its consequences: What we know – and what we don’t.

How did the accident happen?

On December 29, 2013, Schumacher went skiing in Méribel with, among other things, his son Mick (then 14 years old).

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The German skis into the unprepared area just next to the boundary of the “Biche” beginner piste. There, at 11:07 a.m., according to the public prosecutor’s office, Schumacher, who is a very good skier, fell over a boulder covered in snow and hit the right side of his head on another rock. The impact is so violent that the helmet splits. A rescuer told “BILD” at the time: “You could see a lot of blood.” Schumacher’s helmet camera filmed everything.

After Schumacher was first flown by helicopter to the hospital in Albertville-Moutiers, the doctors transferred him to the Grenoble University Hospital on the same day. The doctors diagnosed a traumatic brain injury. He is put into an induced coma.

At the beginning of April 2014, four months after the accident, he showed “moments of consciousness and awakening,” according to a statement from the family.

Best of sports videos 2023 This hurts Schumi fans

Source: BILD December 26, 2023

On June 16, 2014, his manager Sabine Kehm (59) announced that Schumacher was no longer in a coma and had left the hospital in Grenoble to “continue his long phase of rehabilitation”. He is initially staying at the University Hospital of the Canton of Vaud in Lausanne. Since September 2014, he has continued his rehabilitation at home until today.

Shortly after Schumacher’s dismissal in June, the German’s medical records were stolen. A high-ranking employee of the Swiss Air Rescue Service was arrested as the main suspect. He is said to have offered the file to several media outlets for around 50,000 euros. Just a few hours after his arrest on August 5, 2014, the man committed suicide in his cell.

How is Schumacher treated and treated?

In addition to his closest family circle, Schumacher is only allowed to visit by a few confidants, including ex-Ferrari team boss Jean Todt (77), who is a regular guest at the Schumachers’ property in Gland (Switzerland) and occasionally watches a race on television with his friend. Todt in “L’Équipe”: “Michael is there, so I don’t miss him.”

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And further: “His life is different and I have the privilege of being able to share moments with him. Unfortunately, fate struck him ten years ago and he is no longer the Michael we knew from F1.”

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At home, the Formula 1 legend will receive around-the-clock care in a private hospital ward located in his former office. Up to 15 doctors, masseurs and assistants are part of the care team.

According to BILD information, Schumacher has not only been shown original pit radio traffic in the past, but he himself has also been driven around in a roaring Mercedes AMG. The goal: to stimulate the brain with familiar sounds.

Neurologist Tobias Bonhoeffer (63) said in 2018: “One can generally say that destruction of nerve tissue in the brain or spinal cord cannot be repaired. If the brain is very severely damaged, as Schumacher obviously suffered, there are no longer enough other nerve cells available to take on these tasks.”

What else is unknown?

Only the closest circle knows whether he is able to communicate or move. In the Netflix documentary “Schumacher,” his wife Corinna (54) revealed: “We live together at home, we do therapy, we do everything so that Michael feels better and does well and that he simply feels our family solidarity.”

10 years after the skiing accident, will we never see Schumi again?

Source: BILD / AP / Archyde.com December 29, 2023

Schumacher lawyer Felix Damm recently said in the magazine “Legal Tribune Online”: “We also considered whether a final report about the state of health could be the right way. But that wouldn’t have been the end of it, and constantly updated water level reports would have had to be made.”

Unfortunately, his former manager Willi Weber (81) was probably right when he recently said: “When I think about Michael now, unfortunately I no longer have any hope of seeing him again. No positive news after ten years.”

Schumi’s brother Ralf (48) told BILD: “I miss my Michael from back then. Life is sometimes unfair. Michael had often been lucky in his life, but then this tragic accident happened. Thankfully, modern medical options have made it possible to do some things, but still nothing is like it used to be.”

The sad truth: There is nothing to suggest that we will see Michael Schumacher in a public appearance again.

Corinna Schumacher – her life since the accident

Flashback to 2012. One year before the skiing accident. Touches. His hand keeps fumbling, searching for her fingers. Texas. The vast America. The sky is full of invisible balloons. Inflated with freedom. With luck. With love.

Michael Schumacher knows: One more Formula 1 race, then the eternal rush will be over after hundredths and tenths of a second after 307 Grand Prix. A long, well-deserved family walk lies ahead of them. A life with and for his Corinna, with and for the kids. Touches.

August 1, 1995: Corinna and Michael Schumacher after the civil wedding in Kerpen-Manheim. She is wearing Italian lace in pearl white, he is wearing a Versace suit. The shirt with a stand-up collar is also from the Italian star designer

Foto: picture-alliance / dpa

It was that November day in Texas. Even at this time of year the sun shines warmly from the blue sky. A hint of sissy scent mingled with the 200-acre Corinna Schumacher Prairie near Gordonville. It was 2012. It was on the new ranch that Schumacher gave to his wife as a thank you for her consideration and strength during his incomparably successful racing career. IT WAS.

IT IS. Today we only see Michael Schumacher in the racing photos. He is fighting a battle in his estate in Gland, Switzerland, that we cannot even imagine. We can only imagine: Today Corinna’s fingers are caressing his hand.

The whole world is asking itself these very simple questions: How is this woman holding up? How strong can faith and hope be that he can fight his way back into life? What does her life look like? Without his mischievous jokes? Without his energy that flooded the entire house – even when he came tired from the race weekends?

Corinna has grown into a new role over the past ten years: from the lovable mother and horse whisperer from Halver into a tough businesswoman. “She was and still is underestimated by many today,” say friends. There was one person she had never underestimated: Michael. In many interviews he repeatedly emphasized how much strength Corinna gives him.

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Source: 1&1/BILD May 4, 2022

Unforgettable, but at the same time more meaningful than ever, Schumi’s sobbing words under his helmet as he crossed the finish line for his first (of five) Ferrari world championship titles in Suzuka on October 8, 2000: “Give Corinna a kiss for me.”

Today, 23 years after this wonderful confession of love in front of 1.3 billion people around the world and ten years after the tragic skiing accident, Corinna is the heart of the Michael Schumacher empire. It manages assets estimated by financial experts to be over half a billion euros.

Of course, Michael had a small circle of financial and tax advisors, lawyers and asset managers around him. But he also always listened to Corinna; they always made decisions together.

Real estate on different continents, stocks, other investments, rentals – not least her horse breeding in Givrins/Switzerland and Texas: Corinna meets with this small advisory group of four or five people three or four times a year and ultimately makes future decisions about sales and new ones -Investments. But of course she is there for everything and for everyone every day.

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“It’s very clear that I miss Michael every day,” says Corinna in the Netflix film. But also: “Michael is there. Different, but it’s there.”

As if she sensed his strength, as if they were still making decisions together: Corinna not only manages the million-dollar fortune, she is one of the most successful reining experts in the world.

As the owner of the CS ranches in Switzerland and America, Corinna has earned over two million dollars in prize money with her reining horses (a form of western riding), making her only the second owner of the NRHA (National Reining Horse Association) from Europe. With prize money of $1.35 million, daughter Gina is now the youngest member of the one million dollar club. The XCS company now owns 130 broodmares.

“We are doing everything we can to make Michael feel better…and to make him feel our family solidarity,” says Corinna. And: “I never blamed God for why this happened.”

The lives of his children

Everything changed from one second to the next on that fateful December 29, 2013. The fall of Michael Schumacher (then 44) catapulted his two children into a new life. Since then, Gina, then 16, and Mick, then 14, have had to do without Dad’s fun, lively but also determined way of raising them. No more gaming. No hugging. Instead, she worries about whether and how her father lives on.

Gina and Mick. Back then with red teary teenage eyes. Today, professional athlete eyes that look forward. Even if the siblings are separated by thousands of kilometers, the two are always close. The fate of that December 29th further entangled the already strong sibling bond.

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Gina and Mick. She, now mainly on the family ranch in Texas. He travels around the world in motorsports. Nevertheless, the two of them communicate every day and support each other in their competitions as often as their busy schedules allow. Unforgettable how Gina sprayed her little brother with champagne in the paddock at Silverstone (England) in 2022 after he scored his first points in Formula 1.

Gina, the reining world champion, Mick, the racing driver. He visits his sister, with or without his girlfriend, the model Laila Hasanovic, at the horse ranch in Texas as often as possible.

While Schumi’s son follows in his father’s footsteps as a test and reserve pilot for Mercedes, Gina has turned her mother’s hobby into her profession. One horsepower instead of 1000 hp.

And there too, the name Schumacher stands for success. Gina not only crowned herself world champion, but also earned over a million euros in prize money. At the major auctions in Oklahoma (USA), the horses bred by her and her friend Iain Bethke are among the most sought-after.

Gina Schumacher during reining, a special form of western riding

Foto: XCSRANCH/Facebook

Mick’s Formula 1 career is still shaky. For two years he struggled with the Haas backbencher team without the necessary support and encouragement. But the main thing is that he is racing again for Alpine in the “WEC” endurance series. Asphalt instead of a simulator – that’s what he urgently needs now after a year as a test driver at Mercedes. Even praise from seven-time champion and Mercedes regular driver Lewis Hamilton is of no use. A racing driver wants to drive.

Many experts agree: If Schumi’s accident hadn’t happened, Mick would be sitting in a Formula 1 cockpit. Damon Hill (63), Formula 1 world champion in 1996 and Schumi’s long-term rival, knows how hard it is for Schumacher Jr. suddenly found himself without his father’s advice. The Briton: “My father Graham was also world champion (1962/BRM, 1968/Lotus; editor). I lost him when I was 15 years old. When I heard about Michael’s accident and the consequences, I was shocked and horrified. I immediately felt for Mick because your father is the guidance person for you.”

His advice to the young pilot: “Mick has to block everything out now. He has to get to the point where he says: Forget Michael! Forget everything around you! Forget everything that happened! Forget the name Schumacher!”

Fast sole in the horse stable Mick Schumacher dances with his Laila

Quelle: TikTopk@lailahasanovic 03.11.2023

This process will not be easy. Hill admits: “During the learning phase, I didn’t have anyone who really had my back. In racing, only fathers can do this – I don’t want it to sound discriminatory. They know, because they have been successful in their cars, what they need to teach their sons. And Mick certainly missed that in the crucial years of development as much as I did back then. You need that!”

Sister Gina shows that this is really the case. She had her mom Corinna, who could show her everything about western riding, show her all the tricks and tricks – and become world champion.

And so Mick’s words take on even greater meaning when he said that he would give up everything just to be able to “chat” with his father about motorsports. Unfortunately, it will probably remain an unfulfilled wish.

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