Zanardi hopes to attend Long Beach

Zanardi, who now wears artificial legs, says it could be too ambitious to fly to America so early in his rehabilitation process, however.

"I'd love to go to Long Beach, I would love to go," he said. "The only problem right now is that I am only at the beginning of my rehab. I am four or five months ahead of where I should be, but it's also true that my legs, my limbs, were badly hurt just not so long ago.

"There are days when everything is perfect, where I can walk kilometres and stay on my legs all day long. Unfortunately, right now, it's not predictable when these days will happen. This is the reason I hesitate to take a trip for so long," he said.

Zanardi is determined to lead a normal life after sustaining the injuries that came close to taking his life last September.

"It will never be exactly as it was before, but if I work hard, we'll get close," he said. "I've been through many, many sets of artificial legs. The good thing is that the toughest part is behind me, which was to learn how to use and how to walk with the legs and how to walk correctly."