Fra Noi Embrace Your Inner Italian
Spinal muscular atrophy may confine her to a wheelchair, but it hasn’t prevented Luisa Rizzo from soaring to the top of the drone racing world.
The pinnacle of 23-year-old Luisa Rizzo’s drone racing career so far was her triumph at the 2024 Women’s World Drone Racing Championship in Hangzhou, China. She used her innate talent, lightning-fast reflexes and strategic prowess to outlast 111 of the world’s best pilots, all while seated in her motorized wheelchair.
“When I won the gold medal, it was unexpected for everyone. I had everyone cheering for me, not just Italians,” Rizzo says. “I was not able to understand it in the moment; I was completely out of myself. But I felt that it was amazing. You don’t expect someone in a wheelchair to win among normal people.”
She was especially proud to have won in China.
“I’ve been there three times, and I know and can say they don’t really consider people with disabilities,” Rizzo says.
At a tournament in Chengdu, China, last year, race organizers failed to find her wheelchair-accessible transportation, so her journey from the hotel to the tournament grounds was a two-hour trek in sweltering heat and 90 percent humidity. She did not perform nearly as well in that tournament.
“I considered it a win just to be there,” Rizzo says.
Rizzo is affected by spinal muscular atrophy and spends most of her time in a wheelchair. She was given her first drone by her father in 2015 as a fun way for her to keep her hands moving. It didn’t take long for her to start excelling in the new sport of drone racing.
Don’t feel too out of the loop if you haven’t heard of drone racing because it didn’t exist as an organized sport until 2011. Racers operate small radio-controlled drones that have onboard digital video cameras. The racers strap on video goggles to navigate the race from the drone’s perspective with the goal of completing an obstacle course as quickly as possible. Unlike other forms of competitive motorsport, the racer does not need to use legs or feet.
“That’s what I like the most, we all have the same opportunity,” Rizzo says. “If you don’t know me, or you don’t look at me, but you see me flying you can’t tell I’m in a wheelchair. There’s no difference.”
She has captured the top prize in Italy’s major domestic tournament six times.
Rizzo says her biggest dream is for drone racing to be included in the Summer Olympics. The new sport is already part of the World Games, an international sports competition made up of events not included in the Olympic Games.
She competed in the 2021 World Games in Birmingham, Alabama, and came in 20th out of 32 racers, a respectable result, made even more impressive considering the circumstances: Her drone racing equipment was lost by the airlines!
“So, I had to buy new stuff there and of course it was not the same,” Rizzo says. “And we’re talking about the 32 fastest flyers in the world, so it’s OK.”
Rizzo says the sport is continuing to evolve, with the competition getting tougher and the competitors seeming to get younger each year.
“Until some years ago, you’d get like 30-something-year-old people who could go fast and win some races,” Rizzo says. “But now we find there’s a lot of kids, and they learn so fast that they are dangerous.”
“So, basically, I’m already old at 23,” she says.
But she has found that flying strategically can be better than just flying fast.
“In just a moment, everyone can fall down and crash. So, my strategy most of the time is to just stay in the air,” Rizzo says. “It doesn’t matter if I’m not as fast as the other ones but if I manage to stay close, maybe I can go further.”
The above article appears in the June 2026 issue of the print version of Fra Noi. Our gorgeous, monthly magazine contains a veritable feast of news and views, profiles and features, entertainment and culture.
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