Synopsis
On January 6, 2000, Sam Schmidt, who had just won his first Indy Racing League competition in his adopted hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada, backed into a wall at the Walt Disney World Speedway in Orlando, Florida. He did so at around two hundred miles per hour, and as a result, Sam broke his neck. Airlifted to Orlando Regional Medical Center before being transferred to Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, where he spent six months in rehabilitation before going home to his new life with his loving wife Sheila and two young children, Savannah and Spencer.
For over 25 years, Sam has learned to live paralyzed. But being a quadriplegic has not slowed him down. Almost immediately after his accident, he started a foundation that has raised millions of dollars for spinal cord injury and rehabilitation. He founded a racing team that’s won dozens of races and competed for championships. He’s driven cars again thanks to cutting-edge technology. His children have grown. He spoke at his son’s college graduation and danced on two legs with his daughter at her wedding.
Sam’s philosophy is you either get busy doing the work or you get busy waiting to die. For him, the latter is not an option. Indeed, Sam says he has done much more after (and because of) his accident than he would have otherwise. A former control freak, he has learned to delegate. A once-singularly-minded, self-described egocentric racer, he now lives to help others. The son of a driver who was also paralyzed from the sport, Sam has lived an astonishing, driven life. This is his journey.