Guerrino Scher

Guerrino Giovanni Antonio Scher, known to all as “Nino”, was born in Istria in 1915. Being young and slight he became a cox in the Libertas rowing club, but their first-choice cox at the time was the 1931 Italian youth champion Albino Grio.

At the beginning of the 1932 season, the experienced Grio moved to the Nettuno club, and so Libertas entrusted the rudder to Scher to control the fate of Bruno Vattovaz, Riccardo Divora, Giovanni Plazzer, and Bruno Parovel. After many months of training, they won the Italian title before leaving for the United States, where they won the coxed fours silver medal at the Los Angeles Olympics in a close race, losing to the German team by a mere 0.2 seconds.

Nino never achieved a result like that again again. He continued to compete with Libertas but did not win any League titles or compete as part of the national team. That magical moment from 1932, however, was re-lived in 1987, when the crew, along with other historical champions, was recognised at a conference in Trieste.