This mom raised a champion drone pilot. Here’s how she did it.

Alex Vanover started racing drones as a teenager. Today, the 2019 Drone Racing League (DRL) Champion, flies professionally. When he’s not competing across real-life, esports, and metaverse drone racing events, Alex can be found filming immersive FPV footage for Michael Bay films, Justin Bieber music videos, and other A-list celebrities. He credits his mother, Cathy Vanover, as his biggest advocate. So, this Mother’s Day, we talked to Cathy to understand how she nurtured a sporting prodigy.

Hailing from Texas, Alex first became interested in aviation around the age of eight. This is when his mom bought him a flight simulator. “At first, he crashed and crashed and crashed,” Cathy recalls. “But it wasn’t long before he was on the simulator setting up commercial aircraft for transatlantic flights. He would take off before bedtime, set it to auto-pilot, and go to sleep, then wake up in the morning to land somewhere in Europe.”

Meanwhile, Alex’s first…