Updated on January 2, 2026 – 5:22 p.mReading time: 3 minutes
Twelve years ago, Michael Schumacher suffered serious injuries in a skiing accident. What followed were incredible attempts to get very close to the victim.
And from one day to the next everything changed: Michael Schumacher’s serious skiing accident on December 29, 2013 was an indescribable blow for the family of the seven-time Formula 1 world champion – and also a shock for the world public. Since then, there has been no more information about “Schumi’s” health status – the family’s long-standing lawyer explained the reasons in autumn 2023 (read more about this here).
Nevertheless, shortly after Schumacher’s accident, there were bizarre and disturbing attempts to get more information about the situation of the racing driver, who turns 57 on Saturday. Two of the most incredible anecdotes:
On the tenth anniversary of the devastating accident in 2023, sports scientist Thomas Horky looked back critically at the media excesses. “One of the most important news factors in the media for all topics is personalization. Stories in the media are best told about people. And the misfortune of one of the most famous German people at the time was a very big and very important story,” said Horky, professor of journalism and sports communication at Macromedia University, the German Press Agency.
The fact that the media then “sometimes went so over-the-top, and really went over-the-top in an unsavory way, is a different story. The media situation was a little different back then. The fight for reach due to the only beginning increase in attention on the Internet and social networks is certainly a factor that led to such excesses back then,” he explained.
“I can only hope that the media has learned from the Michael Schumacher case and from the reporting. Michael Schumacher was and is a person in contemporary history, and a person in contemporary history also has a right to personality, to privacy. The criticism of the excesses of the reporting back then has hopefully had an effect, so that a similar case should no longer occur,” said Horky.