MotoGP.com sums up where Marc Márquez stood before the crash: “12 wins out of 19, 18 podiums out of 19 ... On top of the world and redefining MotoGP – and then came 2020.” He had won “six titles in seven seasons.” On Sunday, July 19, 2020, at the season-opening Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez, he “broke his right arm in a crash,” ESPN reported, “a fall where he was catapulted off his bike”; his team, Honda, reported a “fracture to his right humerus.”
Surgeons fixed “a titanium plate internally to his right humerus,” and “two days after undergoing surgery,” ESPN reported, he was “declared fit to race at this weekend’s Andalusian Grand Prix in Jerez.” “He first tried to make his comeback a week later but that was too soon,” MotoGP.com says. Then “the plate from the first surgery broke, resulting in a second operation,” and “a third was required after the bone became infected and wouldn’t heal”: “four surgeries on the same arm, three of which were in 2020.”
He came back at the Portuguese Grand Prix in 2021 and won in Germany that year, 581 days after his last win. But “he withdrew from the final two rounds after a training crash led to a diagnosis with diplopia – a double vision problem,” MotoGP.com wrote, and in 2022, after “a huge highside at Round 2,” “the diplopia returned.” His humerus, ESPN wrote, was “fractured, infected and malrotated.” “I said when I went to the doctors, ‘Let me know if we have a solution. If not, I will retire,’” Márquez told ESPN. It was, MotoGP.com says, “make or break for his career.”
In June 2022, his Repsol Honda team announced, as Visordown reported, that “Marc Marquez has completed surgery on his right humerus at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.” The Mayo Clinic surgeon Dr. Joaquín Sánchez-Sotelo called it “a rotational humeral osteotomy,” which “involves creating a transverse cut of the humeral bone to rotate the humerus along its long axis”: “The amount of rotation performed today was approximately 30 degrees of external rotation.” With Honda now “falling to the rear of the field,” as ESPN put it, he left “to join the independently operated Gresini Ducati team,” to “race a year-old spec Ducati,” MotoGP.com says, “reportedly almost for free.” “I moved to the Gresini team and said, ‘I just want the bike, I don’t want a salary,’” he told ESPN.
“2024, his first on a Ducati, saw him win three races and finish the year third overall,” MotoGP.com wrote, with “1043 days until he won again in Aragon 2024,” and “Ducati signed Marquez to race in red.” On September 28, 2025, MotoGP.com announced that, “Following his second place result at the Motul Grand Prix of Japan, the famous #93 takes his seventh crown in MotoGP – 2184 days after he last won the title,” equaling “Valentino Rossi’s number of MotoGP titles.” “It was Marc against Marc for five years; it was Marc against injury, but especially on the mental side, it was difficult,” he said, as ESPN reported. “Of course I am happy, but the first feeling was that I feel at peace with myself.”
Fact check
The facts and where they come from
- He was the best rider on Earth, until one crash nearly ended his career. MotoGP.com: “12 wins out of 19, 18 podiums out of 19 ... On top of the world and redefining MotoGP – and then came 2020.” ESPN: “about the arm injury that nearly ended his career.” 16
- His name is Marc Márquez, with six MotoGP titles by 2019. MotoGP.com: “how did he win six titles in seven seasons before needing another six years to return to the throne in 2025?” 1
- In July 2020, he crashed hard and broke his right arm. ESPN (July 19, 2020): “broke his right arm in a crash at the season-opening Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez on Sunday”; “a fall where he was catapulted off his bike”; Honda: “fracture to his right humerus.” MotoGP.com: “A fractured right humerus was the result.” 31
- Days after surgery, he tried to race again. ESPN (July 23, 2020): “declared fit to race at this weekend’s Andalusian Grand Prix in Jerez, two days after undergoing surgery”; “fixing a titanium plate internally to his right humerus.” 4
- Too soon. The metal plate in his arm broke. MotoGP.com: “He first tried to make his comeback a week later but that was too soon”; “the plate from the first surgery broke, resulting in a second operation.” ESPN: “a titanium plate.” 14
- Then the bone got infected. MotoGP.com: “a third was required after the bone became infected and wouldn’t heal”; “four surgeries on the same arm, three of which were in 2020.” 1
- Later, crashes left him seeing double. MotoGP.com: “he withdrew from the final two rounds after a training crash led to a diagnosis with diplopia – a double vision problem”; in 2022, “a huge highside at Round 2 ... following the crash, the diplopia returned.” 1
- His arm had healed twisted. ESPN: “his fractured, infected and malrotated humerus.” MotoGP.com: “All in to fix it back to 100%, which it never had been after that 2020 crash.” 61
- He told doctors he would retire without a fix. Márquez, to ESPN: “I said when I went to the doctors, ‘Let me know if we have a solution. If not, I will retire.’” MotoGP.com: “this time it was make or break for his career.” 61
- So surgeons in America cut the bone and turned it 30 degrees. The Repsol Honda Team, as Visordown reports (June 3, 2022): “Marc Marquez has completed surgery on his right humerus at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.” Dr. Joaquín Sánchez-Sotelo: “a rotational humeral osteotomy. Such procedure involves creating a transverse cut of the humeral bone to rotate the humerus along its long axis. The amount of rotation performed today was approximately 30 degrees of external rotation.” MotoGP.com: “a fourth surgery on his arm”; “re-breaking and rotating his arm by roughly 30 degrees externally.” 71
- But Honda had fallen behind, so he moved to an independent team. ESPN: “his once-formidable team, Honda, falling to the rear of the field”; “to join the independently operated Gresini Ducati team.” MotoGP.com: “He was to move to the Gresini team to race a year-old spec Ducati.” 61
- “I just want the bike, I don’t want a salary,” he said. Márquez, to ESPN: “I moved to the Gresini team and said, ‘I just want the bike, I don’t want a salary’ ...” 6
- On last year’s Ducati, he won again, and the factory team signed him. MotoGP.com: “2024, his first on a Ducati, saw him win three races and finish the year third overall”; “Ducati signed Marquez to race in red”; “1043 days until he won again in Aragon 2024.” 12
- In 2025, after six years, he was world champion again. MotoGP.com (September 28, 2025): “(Ducati Lenovo Team) is the 2025 MotoGP World Champion. Following his second place result at the Motul Grand Prix of Japan, the famous #93 takes his seventh crown in MotoGP – 2184 days after he last won the title”; “He is now the rider with the longest wait between MotoGP World Championships: six years.” 12
- “It was Marc against Marc for five years,” he said. Márquez, to ESPN: “It was Marc against Marc for five years; it was Marc against injury, but especially on the mental side, it was difficult.” 6
- “I feel at peace with myself.” ESPN: “‘I have a super strange feeling. Of course I am happy, but the first feeling was that I feel at peace with myself,’ Márquez said on Sunday.” 6
Sources
- Introducing: Marc Marquez, the 2025 MotoGP World Champion (September 28, 2025) MotoGP.com
- Marc Marquez: his comeback in numbers (September 28, 2025) MotoGP.com
- Marc Marquez breaks arm in MotoGP’s season-opening Spanish Grand Prix (July 19, 2020) ESPN
- MotoGP’s Marc Marquez declared fit to race in Jerez a week after breaking arm (July 23, 2020) ESPN
- Marquez says he considered a break from racing due to injuries (May 2021) ESPN
- MotoGP’s GOAT: Márquez’s remarkable comeback yields title No. 7 (September 29, 2025) ESPN
- Marc Marquez completes “successful” arm surgery in Minnesota (June 3, 2022) Visordown
Notes
“Never race again”: a popular retelling says doctors told him he would never race again; we found no source for that. His own account is that he told the doctors he would retire if there was no solution (ESPN), and that is what the Short says.
The crash and the plate: ESPN says he crashed at turn four and MotoGP.com at Turn 3; the Short names no corner. Reports at the time disagreed on what he was doing when the plate broke, so the Short says only that it broke (MotoGP.com).
Surgeries: MotoGP.com counts “four surgeries on the same arm, three of which were in 2020,” and the fourth in 2022; its numbers page counts “five surgeries on his right arm and shoulder” since his 2019 title, during which he “missed 30 races.” The Short names only the fourth, on its Mayo Clinic label.
Numbers: MotoGP.com says 2,184 days between titles and ESPN 2,185; the Short says “six years.” MotoGP.com counts three Grand Prix wins in 2024 and ESPN four (likely counting a Sprint); this page uses three.
What came after the title, in late 2025 and 2026, is left out.
Marc Márquez is alive. Only race results, statements by his team and MotoGP, and his own published words are used; the medical details are only those his team, MotoGP.com or Márquez himself made public. Nothing here goes into his private life.
Pictures: no free photo shows the crash, his operations, his double vision or the 2025 title race in Japan; broadcast footage and agency photos aren’t used. Marc Márquez is in Honda team kit at the 2023 Japanese Grand Prix on September 28, 2023 (Simon Patterson); on the Gresini Racing Ducati, a year-old bike, at the 2024 Malaysian Grand Prix on November 1, 2024 (Liauzh); at a press conference at Misano on September 8, 2024, cropped to him alone (René 2782); in the Ducati factory team suit on the grid of the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez on April 27, 2025 (Junta de Andalucía); on the factory Ducati at the Czech Grand Prix in Brno on July 18, 2025, not the title race (Pavel21kriz); and in Ducati team kit at the 2026 Spanish Grand Prix in April 2026, months after the title (Denkmit). The Mayo Clinic’s Gonda Building in Rochester, Minnesota, where his fourth arm operation was done, is seen in June 2007, not during it (Nephron).
Photo credits
The archive photos in this story
The photographs and illustrations in this story are in the public domain or shared under open licenses; each one is credited below with its license. Tap one to enlarge it, or follow the link to its Wikimedia Commons page for the full record. The narration, captions and graphics in the Short are our own; its music and sound effects are credited below.
Music and sound effects
Music: Schumann, Kinderszenen, Op. 15: No. 1 'Of Foreign Lands and Peoples (Musopen, public domain); Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition: IV. Bydlo (piano) (Musopen, public domain); Dvorak, Symphony No. 9 'From the New World': II. Largo (Musopen, public domain).
Sound effects: Freesound, CC0.
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
