I can do it!": the story of Corrado "Dado" Caruso, in his own words

My name is Dado (Corrado) Caruso and I was born in 1992. Today I’m a Di.Di Diversamente Disabili rider, I’m registered with the Gentlmens Motor Club of Rome and I race with the Pistard Racing Team in the Octo Cup 1000 class and in the Coppa Italia, Rookie Challenge 1000 category, where I go up against able-bodied riders.

I’ve always been passionate about motorbikes. The passion was passed on to me by my dad. I’ve had bikes of every class: 50, 125, 750, 1000. I led a very normal life, and I was also a decent-level athlete. I played basketball at a good level too: national juniors, Serie D, C and up to B2, the threshold of professionalism.

I was 20 when one Sunday, during a motorbike trip with my father and other friends, I had the accident. Polytrauma with multiple fractures: two vertebrae, acromion, jaw, metacarpals, femur, jugular rupture, a punctured lung and more. The clinical picture was tragic and I was taken to the hospital by ambulance. And then ...here we are...🤣...on a bike at 300 km/h!

When I was young and at the peak of my strength and fitness, I was afraid of disability. I couldn’t even look at a disabled person; it caused me pain and terror, the constant thought of how that guy might feel… And then here we are...at 300 km/h🤣...

After the accident I tried in every way to get my fitness back, to play sports and to do everything I could to ride a motorbike again ...but nothing. How do you ride a motorbike without your right hand and arm? Impossible!!!

After 12 years off, my girlfriend—now my wife—and I went to Motodays in Rome. With the same passion and a tear in my eye, I wandered among the various bike stands. At a certain point I saw a guy without a leg and another without an arm next to photos of knee-downs and great riders. I thought they were injured guys who remained fans, but they were laughing too much for it to be just that... I couldn’t believe my eyes... the riders in those photos were them, damn it! It was them—now!

Inside my head I could hear only a powerful shout: “I can do it!”. I met Emiliano and the Di.Di world—people who didn’t let themselves be crushed and who made their disability their Strength!

It wasn’t easy at all to start riding again, but the passion was too strong... and step by step, here I am: after moving up from the 600s I took part in the first ever world-level para-motorcycling race alongside MotoGP. Today I race both in the Octo Cup, the championship dedicated to disabled riders, and in the Coppa Italia against able-bodied riders.

In life I married my then-girlfriend—also my grid girl, manager, trainer, psychologist 🤣🤣🤣 Kidding, but in one word I can call her my Strength—and we brought three superheroes into the world, our drive for life.

I’ve told you all this not to praise myself nor to recount my life, but to help you better understand what I’m about to write...

As I said, I entered the Di.Di world a bit on tiptoe, with my own Fear. I was even afraid to approach the other guys, not knowing what attitude to take. I was afraid of how to speak and what I could or couldn’t say... afraid of getting the tone wrong… of being overly curious about their stories... afraid of offending... afraid even to live or imagine their suffering...

And while I was asking myself all these questions, the music starts blasting, one guy unhooks a foot, another detaches his hand and clips it to the bike’s throttle and... Welcome to the Di.Di world! Laughter, jokes, banter beyond imagination and the sharpest self-irony: people who have drawn strength, humor and pride from their disability!

The greatest lesson of my life—people capable of turning their deepest pain and daily suffering into a laugh!

I remember one evening in Le Mans: after dinner outside the restaurant we couldn’t find a friend, Alex. We turn around and he was on the roof of a car with the whole wheelchair, ready to slide down like a playground slide. Also in France, another guy shook hands with a MotoGP rider—but the problem was it was the prosthetic, and it stayed in his hand 🤣🤣

Every time in the pits it’s a party where we dance without legs, without arms, without parts...🤣 This is our world; you live an atmosphere of inclusion, you can see and feel that everything is possible, even going 300 km/h without legs. And arms. A world that makes you change your mind about disability—not seen as a disadvantage anymore, but as a charge to surpass yourself and be an example for everyone.

In our world we often say that when we have our helmet and suit on, you can’t tell we have a disability... this is the fruit of our suffering and our hard work, done with Good Humor and a Smile!

I have never seen a Di.Di sad. Never.