Franco De Pedrina

Born in the small town of Cino in the province of Sondrio, Franco De Pedrina started rowing at the suggestion of a friend in 1961 and he joined Canottieri Falck, the rowing club of the factory where he worked as a threading machinist. Rowing was just a pastime initially for De Pedrina. However, in 1962 when he left for Napoli to do his military service, his rowing got more serious, and in 1963 he took part in the International Military Championships (organized by NATO) in Sweden. De Pedrina failed to win any medals, but his good performances convinced coach Pietro Galli to try him on the Falck coxed fours, and they eventually went to the Tokyo Olympics.

Galli’s intuition was a winning one and De Pedrina, in his first complete year with Falck, won the Italian title and the bronze medal at the Amsterdam European Championships. The crew then went to the Tokyo Olympics and returned home with the silver medal behind Germany.

The Olympic success marked the end of De Pedrina´s brief career, one of the shortest of all medal-winning Italian rowers. De Pedrina left Falck in 1965 to work in the construction sector in Switzerland.