Mario Balleri

Born in Livorno and known to all as “Bàllero” in a city where a nickname is often more important than a real name, Mario Balleri joined the famous “Scarronzoni” rowing eight and went on to become one of their most important rowers.

Initially Balleri rowed with the Canottieri Caprera club and first competed in the eights of Unione Canottieri Livornesi in the summer of 1929 and won the first of five consecutive Italian titles with the “Scarronzoni”. Also in 1929, they won the European title in Poland.

In addition to winning the 1930 and 1931 Italian titles, Balleri also won silver in both those years at the Europeans. However, he enjoyed his finest moment as stroke to the Italian eight that took Olympic silver in 1932, behind the host nation USA, who won a close race.

Over 30-years-of-age in 1933, Balleri won his fifth consecutive Italian title and another European silver medal in Budapest. He ended his career in 1935 when, despite winning yet another Italian title, he suffered defeat at the European Championships in Berlin, with a fifth place, nearly 14 seconds behind winners Hungary.