Michael Schumacher in critical condition after skiing accident
Formula One champion Michael Schumacher in critical condition after skiing accident, French hospital says
Updated 3 minutes ago
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Michael Schumacher on the ski slopes in Italy.
(AFP: Vincenzo Pinto, file photo)
Former Formula One champion Michael Schumacher is in a critical condition in a coma after hitting his head while skiing, the French hospital treating him says.
The 44-year-old German "was suffering a serious brain trauma with coma on his arrival, which required an immediate neurosurgical operation," the hospital in the southeast French city of Grenoble said in a statement.
He had been skiing off-piste in the French Alps resort of Meribel, where he reportedly owns a property.
Resort director Christophe Gernigon-Lecomte earlier said Schumacher was wearing a helmet and was conscious "but very agitated" during the transport to the University Hospital of Grenoble.
"He has been taken to a hospital in Moutiers," Mr Gernigon-Lecomte said.
"He fell around 11:00am and hit a rock with his head."
Mr Gernigon-Lecomte said Schumacher was "conscious but very agitated while being taken to hospital."
Schumacher's spokeswoman Sabine Kahn confirmed the accident in initial comments before the gravity of the situation became apparent.
Michael Schumacher: a need for speed
https://teakdoor.com/images/imported/2013/12/3853.jpg - Born January 3 1969 in Germany
- Won the F1 world championship seven times between 1994 and 2004
- Regarded by most as the best F1 driver ever
- Raced for Benetton and Ferrari before retiring in 2006
- In 2002 he finished in the top three in every F1 race
- Signed a three-year comeback deal for Mercedes in 2010 but failed to recapture glory years
- Announced final retirement from racing in late 2012
"He was taken to hospital and is receiving professional medical attention. We ask for understanding that we cannot give out continuous information about his health," she said.
"No one else was involved in the fall."
Daring F1 ace who left rivals trailing in his wake
After years of racing in the high risk world of Formula One and winning a record seven world titles, Schumacher's accident suggests that perhaps retirement has not dulled his relish of dangerous pursuits.
As an F1 racer, Schumacher was known for his daring overtaking manoeuvres, his at-times almost reckless abandon in the pursuit of victory, and his mastery of the tricky conditions presented by rain.
When he won his first world title in 1994 with Benetton, he did so in controversial fashion, crashing into his title rival Damon Hill at the final race after he had already scuppered his own hopes by going off the track when pushing hard despite leading comfortably.
It was indicative of Schumacher's win-at-all-costs attitude and his willingness to take huge risks in order to do so.
He almost provoked a similar crash in the final race of the 1997 season when battling Jacques Villeneuve for the title, an incident for which he was retrospectively disqualified from the whole season.
His career was also punctuated by accusations of dangerous driving following incidents such as a near collision with former team-mate Rubens Barrichello in 2010, which the Brazilian later described as "the most dangerous thing" he had been through.
But even such mishaps didn't slow Schumacher down or quench his thirst for success as he went on to win five successive titles with Ferrari from 2000-2004.
He retired at the end of the 2006 season before making a damp squib of a comeback in 2010 with Mercedes.
But during his retirement he survived a horror accident that knocked him out when racing a motorbike in Spain.
That time he was released from hospital after just five hours.
Even so he is the sport's most decorated champion with a record 91 GP wins, while he is one of only two men to reach 300 races.
In 2000 he also sealed Ferrari's first championship in 21 years with victory in the penultimate race of the season in Japan.
Schumacher's duels in his heyday with Hill, Villeneuve and Mika Hakkinen, fired by an unquenchable competitive spirit, have gone down in Formula One folklore.
Son of a bricklayer who first raced on the go-kart track
Schumacher was born in January 1969 near Cologne, Germany, the son of a bricklayer who also ran the local go-kart track, where his mother worked in the canteen. His younger brother, Ralf also became a successful Formula One driver.
By 1987, Schumacher was the German and European go-kart champion and had left school to work as an apprentice mechanic, although he was soon racing professionally.
In 1990 he won the German F3 championship and was hired by Mercedes to drive sports cars. Just a year later he burst onto the Formula One scene, qualifying seventh for Jordan in his debut race at Belgium.
The young German was immediately snapped up by Benetton, where he won his first Formula One race in 1992, again at Belgium's tough Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
Schumacher won 18 races over the next four seasons with Benetton, claiming back-to-back world titles in 1994 and 1995.
In 2002 Schumacher won 11 times and finished on the podium in all 17 races.
In 2003, he broke Juan Manuel Fangio's record by claiming his sixth world title and in 2004 he won 13 races, his greatest season.
He lives in Switzerland with his wife and two children.
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