Meet the Italian teen with one leg and no hands finding freedom in acrobatic pole dancing

Fifteen-year-old Francesca Cesarini was born with no hands and with only one leg. So her mother was more than a bit surprised when her daughter told her she wanted to be an acrobatic pole dancer.

Francesca Cesarini, 15, practices pole dancing at home while her mother Valeria Mencaroni, 47, watches, in Magione, near Perugia, Italy, Nov 15, 2021. Reuters Francesca Cesarini, 15, practices pole dancing at home while her mother Valeria Mencaroni, 47, watches, in Magione, near Perugia, Italy, Nov 15, 2021. Reuters

Francesca Cesarini, 15, practices pole dancing at home in Magione, near Perugia, Italy, Nov 15, 2021 Francesca Cesarini, 15, practices pole dancing at home in Magione, near Perugia, Italy, Nov 15, 2021

Photographs and medals won by Francesca Cesarini, 15, are displayed on a shelf at her home in Magione, near Perugia, Italy, November 15, 2021 Photographs and medals won by Francesca Cesarini, 15, are displayed on a shelf at her home in Magione, near Perugia, Italy, November 15, 2021

"I don't know if maybe I saw it on social media first, or I dreamt it, I don't know. I just know that I (woke up and) went to her and I said that I wanted to do pole dance," Cesarini said.

Three years later, in 2021 she competed in the International Pole Sports Federation's virtual world pole and aerial championship.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, pole dancers from around the world submitted videos of their performances and were judged virtually. She was the only athlete to compete in the disability category and was awarded the gold medal.

Francesca Cesarini, 15, practices pole dancing at home in Magione, near Perugia, Italy, Nov 15, 2021

Like many girls her age, Francesca wears braces on her teeth and a black plastic choker necklace. She likes to go to McDonalds, sings the latest pop song while walking with her best friend, and loves all things Harry Potter.

But she chose an increasingly popular sport that anyone would find difficult.

"It makes me feel free," she said in her family's apartment near Perugia in central Italy, where she practices at home and trains with her coach Elena Imbrogno in a local gym.

At a recent training session, as she hung upside down and twirled, Imbrogno told her to try it again but with her head just a bit straighter.

Photographs and medals won by Francesca Cesarini, 15, are displayed on a shelf at her home in Magione, near Perugia, Italy, November 15, 2021

"There are some difficult elements (like) when you have to contort yourself or maybe you have to hold on with just an arm, a leg, or a foot. That's the difficult thing," she said.

She has one prosthetic leg, but when he she was about eight years old she decided to stop using artificial forearms because she found them inhibiting.

"She still doesn't want them," said her mother Valeria Mencaroni, 47.

"Francesca is a girl who knows what she wants. She wants to achieve certain goals," said her father Marco Cesarini, 57. "Francesca is like this, this is it. She has never had that limb, or hands, and so she does everything with what she has."

And, he might have added, she did it without any help from Harry Potter's wand.