Speaker 1: On this episode of Sports Illustrated Weekly, we continue Where
Speaker 1: Are They Now Week with a story of triumph and
Speaker 1: tragedy in a sport on the rise. We spoke to
Speaker 1: SI senior writer John Wertheim about his piece on Michael Schumacher,
Speaker 1: Formula One's most successful driver ever, who disappeared from the
Speaker 1: public eye nearly a decade ago. Before we talk about
Speaker 1: Michael Schumacher, we have to talk about Formula one, the
Speaker 1: sport he was king of for a long time. You
Speaker 1: mentioned in your piece that it's really catching on in
Speaker 1: the US, and they've recently announced adding a race in
Speaker 1: Las Vegas. Beginning in Formula one has uh in auto
Speaker 1: racing terms, it's caught a gear. Formula one has become
Speaker 1: this very trendy voguer sport. The F one racing in
Speaker 1: Miami was like super Bowl level. There's a race in Vegas.
Speaker 1: This is a at sport. A lot of this I
Speaker 1: think is obviously the Netflix documentary, but this is a
Speaker 1: sport on the rise. When they get into a two
Speaker 1: hundred alcohol they almost fight of parliamentality an twa thing
Speaker 1: on my family. All I do is probably for a
Speaker 1: sci ferrice, you need to respect to speed. For the
Speaker 1: second the driver has few you need to retire. That
Speaker 1: Netflix documentary is incredibly popular. Formula ones Drive to Survive
Speaker 1: has four seasons under its belt and a fifth and
Speaker 1: six recently announced, but fans of F one are also
Speaker 1: hungry for information about one of the sport's biggest stars,
Speaker 1: Michael Schumacher. Yeah, there was a Netflix film I you know,
Speaker 1: maybe six months ago, clearly done with with the Famili's
Speaker 1: buy it about Michael Schumacher, and you know, it was
Speaker 1: really much more of a tribute to any sort of
Speaker 1: update or anything like that. But it's it's a wild story,
Speaker 1: and it's it's a sensitive story. It's a sad story.
Speaker 1: But here you have this ascending sport and the Tiger Woods.
Speaker 1: The Michael Jordan's figure of the sport is, you know,
Speaker 1: is no one quite knows about his whereabouts and no
Speaker 1: one quite knows about his his prognosis, his state right now.
Speaker 1: It's really quite tragic and it's something that it interested
Speaker 1: me as as sort of a new coover to Formula one.
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's we have this in other sports
Speaker 1: and and maybe the maybe the figure is deceased, and
Speaker 1: maybe they're very prominent, but I can't think of too
Speaker 1: many situations like this where the most prominent figure I'm
Speaker 1: certainly of the last twenty five years, maybe ever is
Speaker 1: in a state like Michael Schumacher. Wow, comparable to a
Speaker 1: Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan's. Tell us, what about his
Speaker 1: career puts him on their level. Michael Schumacher was absolutely
Speaker 1: one of the perhaps perhaps the greatest, certainly one of
Speaker 1: the greatest Formula one racers ever. When when Errton Senna
Speaker 1: passed away by ironically you know, and erased Michael Schumacher one,
Speaker 1: Michael Schumacher really didn't merely win the race. He really
Speaker 1: became sort of be the air apparent. Schumacher wins at
Speaker 1: Spall and that's his first win. This is an all
Speaker 1: time successful driver. That's Michael Schumacher. Is that two thousand
Speaker 1: and four Formula one World champion guy went back into
Speaker 1: the research. This wasn't well, it's it's gonna be a race.
Speaker 1: Pardon the pun, but it's gonna be a race among
Speaker 1: Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Michael Schumacher, who's gonna become the
Speaker 1: first billionaire? It is gonna be an historic win pasta MAKA.
Speaker 1: He was doing business in China. Before that was Voga.
Speaker 1: She was this absolute global superstar with with homes all
Speaker 1: over the world, and he flew private. Michael Schumacher has
Speaker 1: done it today and he wins his sixty fun propride
Speaker 1: and he's a five times world Formula one champion. For
Speaker 1: a certain time period he was as big as any
Speaker 1: athlete in the world. I think we have to address
Speaker 1: that Formula one, by its very nature, is an incredibly
Speaker 1: dangerous sport. You mentioned his rivalry with Senna, which unfortunately
Speaker 1: ended in tragedy. Yeah, and sort of one of the
Speaker 1: great tragic ironies of this story is that Michael Schumacher,
Speaker 1: you're right, was in this this terrifically dangerous, exhilarating sport
Speaker 1: where the slightest miscalculation can can have fatal consequences. This
Speaker 1: is a sport in which his his rival, you know,
Speaker 1: died on impact in a race, a race of Michael
Speaker 1: Schumacher one. And yet his his condition now, his deeply
Speaker 1: compromised condition now has nothing to do with auto racing.
Speaker 1: So what does it have to do with Shortly after
Speaker 1: a retirement on the new rater around ten years ago,
Speaker 1: Michael Schumacher went on a on a ski trip. He's
Speaker 1: he's German but lives in Switzerland, and this was on
Speaker 1: the on the French side of the Alps, and no
Speaker 1: one knows entirely what happened. But he had a very
Speaker 1: serious accident, was airlifted, was in a medically induced coma,
Speaker 1: and hasn't really been heard or seen from since. And
Speaker 1: it's clearly you know that the family is deeply private
Speaker 1: about his state. Quite understandably, I wrote this story. It
Speaker 1: was sort of a delicate story to write in that
Speaker 1: and I think it's newds worthy. I think it's relevant.
Speaker 1: But you also want to be empathic, and you want
Speaker 1: to be respectful, and you want to be sensitive to
Speaker 1: the family and their their desire to sort of keep
Speaker 1: keep private private. But he is clearly in a deeply
Speaker 1: compromised state. In your piece, you mentioned one person who
Speaker 1: was eventually arrested for trying to sell Schumacher's medical records
Speaker 1: after the accident. But other than that, most people who
Speaker 1: know him and respect him, they're not talking about his
Speaker 1: current condition. What do you owe that too? It's a
Speaker 1: great question. I think different people have different motivations. I mean,
Speaker 1: when this happened, I mean again, it's it's hard to
Speaker 1: exaggerate what an absolute global figure. I mean, this is
Speaker 1: of fifteen years ago. This is you know, a Tiger Woods,
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan Lebron James level global athlete. And there was
Speaker 1: a huge hunger and interest in what had happened. And
Speaker 1: as you mentioned, somebody involved in the rescue temp ended
Speaker 1: up selling their story and that was a criminal fence.
Speaker 1: They were sentenced to some prison time and actually took
Speaker 1: their life in prison. So there was a huge desire
Speaker 1: for the for the public to have more information. There
Speaker 1: was a desire for the family not to have any
Speaker 1: information come out. And what I discovered reporting this story
Speaker 1: is there's a lot of whispering and speculation, and it's,
Speaker 1: as you know, honestly, as you might expect there to
Speaker 1: be both in who I visited, the town where he resides,
Speaker 1: and everyone knows the story, and everybody sort of has
Speaker 1: has a story of seeing Schumacher or his wife rides
Speaker 1: horses nearby, or we used to see him and now
Speaker 1: we don't. But it was very hard to get people
Speaker 1: to to speak on the record. That includes formula one
Speaker 1: and again it's just a sort of a deeply uncomfortable
Speaker 1: situation where you know he's he's still he's still with us,
Speaker 1: and he's still a driver who commands very rightfully, so
Speaker 1: a great deal of respect and admiration, but he clearly
Speaker 1: is is in a deeply compromised stay. There's very little
Speaker 1: information that comes out, and I think, you know, honestly,
Speaker 1: I think that at some level, people at least in
Speaker 1: Europe know this story and have left it alone. Where
Speaker 1: we're Formula one has not had to see a storm
Speaker 1: of that one has always been popular. Michael Schumacher was
Speaker 1: never really a polarizing figure in Formula one. There wasn't
Speaker 1: much in the way of a public scandal during his career.
Speaker 1: Do you think his fans in particular are so protective
Speaker 1: of him now because of his behavior before his accident.
Speaker 1: That's a really good point. I mean, you know, you
Speaker 1: and I spoke as well this week about stephie Graff,
Speaker 1: who is a fellow German and also very close to
Speaker 1: Michael Schumacher an age, and you know, coincident or or not,
Speaker 1: they both sort of conducted themselves quite similarly, where they
Speaker 1: tried to perform to their sport and performed at this
Speaker 1: unprecedented level and had very little interest in the other
Speaker 1: trappings of celebrity as a human, if you go through
Speaker 1: difficult times and you can sustain and you can actually
Speaker 1: grow and develop yourself. Still, that is what makes it
Speaker 1: even his trauma, and that's what I feel. I feel
Speaker 1: like a much more mature person, much more open, much
Speaker 1: more easy going, uh than I ever have been before.
Speaker 1: I mean, Michael Schumacher was not particularly you know, out
Speaker 1: there charismatic, candid athlete. There's a story I included in
Speaker 1: this story of Sports Illustrated, you know, and this just
Speaker 1: was fifteen years ago. So sent sent a writer. They finally,
Speaker 1: after months and months of negotiating, they finally got an
Speaker 1: interview with Michael Schumacher. They sent a writer across the
Speaker 1: ocean and he got a few minutes with Michael Schumacher
Speaker 1: while Michael Schumacher was on the treadmill. So this is
Speaker 1: not you know, this is not exactly Charles Barkley. And
Speaker 1: I think perhaps that's informed one reason why people are
Speaker 1: so delicate, And I think at some level people have
Speaker 1: realized that the family doesn't want a lot of conversation.
Speaker 1: But I do think you're right that the fact that
Speaker 1: Michael Schumacher in his prime was so private, may maybe
Speaker 1: if this were the Charles Barkley of auto racing, people
Speaker 1: would think differently. In the Netflix documentary Schumacher, his son
Speaker 1: Mick talks about his desire to be able to share
Speaker 1: his own career in racing with his dad. This pap
Speaker 1: is once and then advisor for Stanburton. Yet I'm off
Speaker 1: I've been in in a Amisian shasion. Do you find
Speaker 1: that fans have rallied around Mick and Michael's absence? Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's some of that. Mick Schumacher is a racer up
Speaker 1: and coming. I mean not at least not yet. He's
Speaker 1: not of his father's caliber. Who knows he might be,
Speaker 1: But no, I think that that Schumacher name goes a
Speaker 1: long way. And I mean again, I can't exaggerate. Formula
Speaker 1: one at the US and the time, and Michael Schumacher
Speaker 1: saw reference. So you could walk down Broadway and he
Speaker 1: might not go recognize. But globally this was an absolute
Speaker 1: a list athlete and for a lot of racing fans,
Speaker 1: not just in Europe where Formula one is sort of
Speaker 1: the central to Formula one, but but he was very
Speaker 1: big in China, is very big in India, but I
Speaker 1: think all over the world. Yeah, Mick Schumacher has has
Speaker 1: clearly picked up on some of the popularity that his
Speaker 1: father had when he was the best racer in the world.
Speaker 1: This all leaves me with one big question for you, John,
Speaker 1: when we talk about where some of these sports legends
Speaker 1: are now. In the case of someone like Michael Schumacher,
Speaker 1: all we know is that he's alive. Do you think
Speaker 1: people his fans should know more? Are we entitled to
Speaker 1: that information just because of someone's success in sports? You know,
Speaker 1: it's It's something I wrestled with doing the story um
Speaker 1: and I think it's a balance between respecting the family's wishes,
Speaker 1: which is clearly for maximum privacy, and at the same time,
Speaker 1: I think there's you know, at some level, there's a
Speaker 1: newsworthiness to the fact that this this sport is on
Speaker 1: the uptick and the best driver in history. Is sort
Speaker 1: of a topic that doesn't come up in conversation that
Speaker 1: everybody's sort of very a fraught topic. I think the
Speaker 1: family's wishes ought to prevail, and if they don't want
Speaker 1: a lot disclose, it ought not to be disclosed. But
Speaker 1: I do think just sort of setting out the fact
Speaker 1: pattern here, I mean, just kind of laying out the
Speaker 1: tragic irony of this. Laying out the fact that as
Speaker 1: Formula one is so popular, you know, no one quite
Speaker 1: knows the status of the best driver in history. I
Speaker 1: think is worthy of the story. Athletes are part of
Speaker 1: the lineage and when they retire, when they see us competing,
Speaker 1: they still are part of the landscape, sometimes more prominently
Speaker 1: than others. But to have somebody completely drop off and
Speaker 1: something we're not used to seeing. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: a reminder to please rate and review our show. It
Speaker 1: helps people find us. Sports Illustrated Weekly is a production
Speaker 1: of Sports Illustrated and I Heart Radio. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows. And
Speaker 1: for more of Sports Illustrated It's best stories and podcasts,
Speaker 1: visit SI dot com. This episode of Sports Illustrated Weekly
Speaker 1: was produced by Jessica Yourmoski, Jordan Risieri That's me, and
Speaker 1: Isaac Lee, who was also our sound engineer. Our senior
Speaker 1: producer is Dan Bloom. Our executive producers are Scott Brody
Speaker 1: and John Gonzalez. Our theme song is by Nolan Schneider.
Speaker 1: H