Luciana was born to a family with very close links to the world of horses as her father Arnaldo played polo, while her mother Lica was a talented dressage rider (she won a record-breaking eight Brazilian dressage championships). Two of Luciana’s brothers, Andre and Fabio, followed in their father’s footsteps becoming very successful polo players. Her third brother Arnaldo Jr instead became a racing driver, while Luciana started her equestrian career in the world of dressage riding the family horse called Marko. When Marko died Luciana stopped riding for a month and then devoted her career to show jumping. 

At the age of 18 she left Brazil and moved to Belgium where she trained with a number of important riders, among them her compatriot, the legendary rider and world-famous coach Nelson Pessoa. Diniz still rode for her country when she made her international debut, however, in 2006, she asked to be listed as riding for Portugal, as constantly requested by her grandfather who was born there.

Luciana likes running, reading, boxing, archery and meditation. She has written a book (‘Fit4Gold’), made a television series (‘Hoofprints’) about her ‘journey’ with her horse Fit for Fun on their way to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and also founded G.R.O.W., a school of informal educational philosophy that mainly teaches children how to become better people. G.R.O.W. is also involved in training and selling show jumpers. Luciana’s stables are in Germany. She is mother of twins, Paulo e Pedro, probably named in memory of the former Brazilian racing driver Paulo Pedro Diniz.