October 2025: Bruno Cetraro Berriolo

ROWER OF THE MONTH – Bruno Cetraro Berriolo has been breaking boundaries for Uruguay throughout his rowing career. At the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games he and Felipe Kluver Ferreira reached the A-final of the lightweight men’s double sculls; in 2023, Cetraro stepped up to openweight and finished 12th in the men’s single sculls at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. He became the first Uruguayan since 1989 to make the men’s single sculls A-final at a World Rowing Championships in Shanghai last month. He is the Rower of the Month.

How did you get into rowing?

At first I started playing soccer. In Uruguay football is very competitive, it’s one of the things Uruguay is best-known for. People don’t know where Uruguay is, but they know Luis Suárez, Edison Cavani and those guys. I realised I wasn’t really going to make it.

But I was always a very hyperactive child. My dad started thinking I needed something else to channel my energy. He saw the lightweight double of Rodolfo Collazo and Javier Garcia at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on TV, and then took me to my first club, Montevideo Rowing Club.

I started rowing to satisfy my dad and then I started seeing how people would go and race in different places and make lots of friends, and that caught my attention. After that I fell in love with the sport.

How did you find the transition from lightweight to openweight?

They’re two different categories, but the objective is the same. We’re all people. I always try to see it as a glass half-full situation. I respect my opponents, but I respect myself as well. Everyone has put in the same work. It was hard to get this perspective; when I was younger and I said my dream was to be up there with the big guys, people would always put me down and say I wouldn’t get there. Having to overcome those comments and the stigma is why I can now look at people like Olli Zeidler and Simon van Dorp and say I can do this too, why not?

I do enjoy not having to make weight and then compete, but it wasn’t the reason I switched over. It was more reaching for the dream of being there with the big guys.

What has been the highlight of your career so far?

It’s making the final of the World Rowing Championships in Shanghai, because of everything it cost me to get there. Every step was just as important as the next one, but the A-final was a real culmination of that work.

Before that, the final in Tokyo, because it was a very different path that we had to get there, considering the limited resources we had to get there.

For Tokyo we had a team, I trained with Felipe every day, but now I train in Spain alone without a coach being present. The journey to get to the world championships was basically on our own. Our coach Sebastian Baranzano lives in Norway and we’ve only met three times since the beginning of the year, although working with him before the world championships was fundamental. That’s another reason it’s a highlight.

 What was your experience of the 2025 World Rowing Championships like?

One of the biggest changes I’ve made coming into these championships was making it a priority to enjoy each day and take the pressure off myself, because that’s when I’m the best version of myself out on the water, and in life.

From the day I got to Shanghai it was just about finding the joy in each day and each training session and really taking away the anxiety of racing. It was more thinking that tomorrow’s another day doing what I love most and putting all the love I have for the sport on display.

Making the final was a dream come true, it was a really surreal moment. I felt very happy and joyful to be there. I was thinking about that kid that dreamt of something so big. When I got to the final I did experience some nervousness about being at the level that I wanted to be, but I still enjoyed it to the max. I was thinking about all the people that identified with me, and all the people that came up to me after the semifinal, that I was maybe making them dream a little bit bigger too.

With hard work anything is possible. Everyone wants to win, but just being there and finishing the race meant I got that message about love and hard work out there.

Uruguayan rowing is on a high right now – what’s changed in the sport to make this happen?

It’s a change of mindset. It’s been such a long process, it didn’t just start last year, it’s been years of hard work. In Uruguay we train on a lake that’s a kilometre and a half long. It’s been about not seeing that as a limitation but as an opportunity – if we can do that, we can go on to bigger things.

In 2015 I started working with a coach, Osvaldo Borchi, and started making that change in mindset that you can be more and be bigger than people think. That was the start of this trajectory.

Now Felipe lives in Brazil and works with a coach at the Club de Regatas Flamengo – he’s really well set up there and can row every day. I live in Seville, training out of the Club Náutico Sevilla, and that’s what’s given me the air under my wings.

What are your aims and ambitions for the future?

My dream ever since I was a child was to be an Olympic champion, that will always be my goal, whether I achieve it or not. That means also winning medals at the World Cups and World Championships, and qualify the boat for the Olympics at the World Championships, which has never happened before for Uruguay.

Where’s your favourite place to row?

Seville, because it’s given me so much and it feels like home. I’m so grateful to this place for giving me the opportunity to get better.

What’s on the erg playlist?

It’s very variable – whatever comes up on Spotify today.

Who has inspired you?

My biggest inspiration outside of rowing is my grandfather. He’s 82 years old and he still gets up every day and goes to work on his farm. I’ve seen that determination in him ever since I was little, that he gets up and provides for the family. It’s something I’ve admired my entire life. Even if he’s tired he still gets up for the good of the family. That’s where I got my love of hard work and doing whatever is possible.

In rowing my biggest inspiration is Olaf Tufte; I don’t really know why, but ever since I started rowing and watching racing he’s been the rower I had the most connection with. Before the 2025 World Rowing Cup Varese we had the opportunity to go to Norway and train there, and I met him. It was a very emotional moment and a realisation of a lot of things to meet my idol – it was a highlight of the season. He sent me a message when I qualified for the final in Shanghai, telling me to do my best in the final.

What’s the best piece of advice anyone’s ever given you?

To always be honest to yourself. At the end of the day everyone has a lot of hard work in their bag when they reach the final, but what makes the difference is the confidence you have in yourself. There’s nothing impossible in this life – if you work hard for your dreams anything is possible.