THE SPORT OF ROWING once more at the 1929 Italian and European Championships before Pierluigi retired. Giuseppe Sinigaglia Giuseppe Sinigaglia, Canottieri Lario Como, 1911 European Champion in the singles and in the doubles with Teodoro Mariani, was another Italian rowing hero. According to The Times of London (July 1, 1914), the 6’6” 200cm 206lb. 93kg “Sini” was “one of the biggest men that ever sat in a sculling boat at Henley.” Besides his 1911 European titles, he was Italian champion in greco-roman wrestling in 1905 and European Silver Medalist in the coxed-pairs2810 in 1907 with Annibale Baretta, the singles in 1912 and the doubles with Mariani in 1913. He won the Diamond Sculls in 1914. He was posthumously awarded the Italian Silver Medal of Military Valor for his service in the battle for Cima Quattro di San Michele during World War I. Gli Scarronzoni In 1928, Canottieri Livornesi also formed an eight composed of Vittorio Cioni, Enrico Garzelli, Guglielmo Del Bimbo, Mario Del Bimbo, Dino Barsotti, Eugenio Nenci, Enzo Favilla, Renato Tognaccini and coxswain Mario Ghiozzi. They were soon joined by Roberto Vestrini and coxswain Cesare Milani from the 1927 European Champion Livorno Coxed-Pair. Between 1928 and 1941, the eight from Canottieri Livornesi would earn twelve Italian titles; one Bronze, three Silver and two Gold Medals in the European Championships; and two Silver Medals at the Olympics in Los Angeles and Berlin.2811 2810 behind Visser, Molmans and Colpaert. See Chapter 72. 2811 http://livorno.guidatoscana.it/calcio- sport/canottaggio.asp 2812 Enrico Paradisi, Addio al Mitico Oreste Grossi, www.canottaggio.org Riefenstahl, Olympia, Teil II: Fest der Schönheit Ottorino Quaglierini 1936 7-seat The Scarronzoni Technique This is mugging for Riefenstahl’s camera. By 1936, crew members still lifted their heads, but they had actually become highly disciplined in technique. In the beginning, they may have been destined for greatness, but it was hard to tell. At their first race they earned the pejorative nickname gli Scarronzoni. www.canottaggio.org: “They were all stevedores, laborers, workers of the Port of Livorno, people accustomed to hard work.”2812 “At the [1928] Tuscan Championships, the movements of the oarsmen (for the most part habituated to fixed-seat rowing) were awkward and inelegant. They rowed with force and 784
