TAMPA — Tampa native Dania Vizzi's original career path wasn't anywhere near skeet shooting when she was growing up. She started dancing when she was three years old and, at age 16, earned a spot at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York. Before she left, her father, A.J., asked if she wanted to tag along with him when he went shooting.
She fell in love with the sport, and the rest is history.
"It didn’t sound like something fun to me. But I said, 'Okay, I’ll go with you,'" Vizzi joked before practice. "So I shot with him that day. Absolutely loved it. And then one day randomly, there was a National Team coach at the range. He said, 'Did you know this is an Olympic sport? I think you would be really good at it.' I was like, 'This is an Olympic sport? That’s awesome! I want to be an Olympian!'”
Gone were the days of being judged on hair color, height, or song selection. Vizzi, 29, put down the dance shoes and held onto the guns.
"When I was shooting, it was like, no matter who you were, where you came from, what you looked like," she recalls when talking about what made her fall in love with shooting. "It was just whether you hit or missed the target."
All things considered, shooting is one of the most expensive sports to practice regularly. Luckily, Vizzi has picked up plenty of sponsorships to help her train full-time. Dania is quick to thank her family, especially her mother, Doree (whom she affectionately refers to as her "caddie"), for making sacrifices that allow her to chase her dreams.
"It’s amazing. It’s the most wonderful, beautiful thing to watch," Doree beamed. "I can hardly talk about it without tearing up."
"She sacrificed so many years of going and doing things she wants to do to be out here to help me get to my dream is incredible," Dania added with a smile. "She’s the best mom ever."
Vizzi qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics in March, where she knew she'd made the U.S. team even before the competition was over.
"I knew after I shot the second-to-last target that I had already made the team. So I started crying after I hit that one," she laughed. "And then I don’t know how I hit the last target."
Dania's won multiple international medals in shooting, but her trophy case is only missing one thing.
"All I’m lacking is that Olympic medal," she said after a practice round. "So hopefully, I’m at the top of the podium listening to my national anthem with that Olympic medal around my neck."
"I’m just so proud of her. She’s an Olympian. She’ll always be an Olympian," her mother added. "So if she medals, awesome. If she doesn’t medal, still awesome."
