Competitive Shooter, Dania Vizzi, Has Eyes on the Prize

USA –  -(Ammoland.com)- Making it in competitive skeet shooting is hard enough for those who’ve been shooting their whole lives. So what about those who spent the majority of their lives doing something else?

What if that something else was dancing?

As a three-time Junior Olympic Women’s Skeet champion, and silver, bronze and gold medalist in the in the past three consecutive world championships, 20-year-old Dania Vizzi never expected to make it here. It was only a few years ago the Tampa native began competitively shooting.

In fact, she spent the large majority of her life working towards a professional career in dance. She was even accepted into one of the world’s most elite dance programs, the summer dance intensive at The Juilliard School. After her summer at Juilliard in New York, she decided it wasn’t her path.

If she went to college at Juilliard, she would have to sacrifice shooting skeet—there aren’t many gun ranges in West Manhattan. She chose to stay in Florida, focusing her time on her new-found passion.

Dania was 14 when she first tried target shooting. She wanted to try the sport her dad loves, but on her first attempt the kickback from the gun made her cry. It would be two more years until she tried skeet shooting again. The next time, her dad—an experienced shooting hobbyist and hunter—bought her a perfect-fitting gun. With her new tool, Dania discovered she had natural ability on the range. She took to skeet shooting and began regularly practicing at her local shooters club, the Silver Dollar Trap Club, part of Silver Dollar Resorts community in Odessa, Fla., where she was discovered.

A fellow shooter at Silver Dollar suggested Dania get more serious practicing the sport. Dania, a competitive dancer at the time, hadn’t considered shooting as more than a hobby. She took her friend’s advice and began training under Todd Graves, a four-time Olympian and the National Shotgun Coach for USA Shooting.

Now, three years later, Dania still trains under Coach Graves. She carries the title of 2013 Junior Olympic Champion, and is the winner of several Olympic Selection matches. In fact, Dania recently competed in the 2015 Fall Selection Match, and is gearing to up to take first place in the Spring Selection Match this May. If she wins, she takes the single remaining spot for the Olympic Women’s International Skeet conference.

While shooting may have taken the place of dancing for Dania, her dance training gave her the finesse and poise it takes to shoot on-target at the range. She continues to train at the Silver Dollar Trap Club, while attending the University of Southern Florida.

Dania thrives in the skeet shooting community, and as a result she’s been able to travel across the world and meet friends from all different circles. And though she hasn’t been in the sport long, she was welcomed with open arms.

Today, Dania is focused on making the Olympic shooting team and doing her part to support her community. She recently participated in Silver Dollar’s Shoot for the Cure event, a breast cancer awareness event at the shooting club.

Skeet shooting has not only granted her great success, it’s made Dania’s life fuller than she could have ever imagined. As the rigorous spring selection fast approaches, she is ready.

Dania is competing for the first time as an adult, taking the next step in her skeet shooting career—her true passion.