Ricardo Durán

Ricardo Durán was born on 20 September 1938 and grew up as part of the rowing community of San Nicolás de los Arroyos, a city on the Paraná river in the north of Buenos Aires Province. His place of birth has not been widely published. He trained and competed for the Club de Regatas San Nicolás, a club whose origins lie in rowing and which has produced several Argentine Olympians.

Durán specialised in sweep rowing and found his best success in the coxless pair, partnered by his Regatas clubmate Carlos Montaldo, known as Cabezón. In a coxless pair each oarsman pulls one oar and there is no coxswain, so steering, rhythm and balance must all be shared between the two rowers.

At the 1963 Pan American Games in São Paulo, Brazil, Durán and Montaldo finished third in the coxless pairs and won the bronze medal, rowing the same boat they later took to Japan.

In 1964 the pair were chosen to represent Argentina at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Olympic records list them in the men's coxless pair event, where they did not start in their repechage race and did not progress to the later rounds. Their selection made them two of the best known sportsmen in the history of San Nicolás, and local press has long referred to their crew as the famous and well remembered Dos sin Timonel, the coxless pair.

Durán was married to Marta Lucila Boldrini. They had three sons, Jorge Ricardo, Alejandro Rubén and Adrián Nicolás, and a granddaughter, Lucila. He remained closely connected to the Club de Regatas San Nicolás throughout his life. In 2022 he was among the San Nicolás Olympic rowers honoured at a tribute organised by the rowing community of the Litoral region, together with Carlos Montaldo, Sol Amaya and Dolores Amaya.

Ricardo Durán died in San Nicolás de los Arroyos on Thursday 22 October 2026, aged 88. His cause of death was not made public. The news was first reported by the San Nicolás newspaper El Norte and was carried by the provincial news agency DIB and other regional outlets.

His death came on the 134th anniversary of the founding of the Club de Regatas San Nicolás. Local reporters described the coincidence as a nod of fate, with the club bidding farewell on its own birthday to one of its greatest sporting symbols, in the very sport that gave the club its origin. They wrote that rowing at Regatas and sport in San Nicolás had lost another of its great figures, one who transcended club colours and borders.

A family death notice announced that his remains would be taken for a farewell on 23 October 2026 at the chapel of the Cementerio Parque Celestial in San Nicolás. His Olympic partner Carlos Montaldo had died in April 2025, aged 85.

Durán is remembered as one of the pioneers of Olympic rowing from San Nicolás. With Carlos Montaldo he won a Pan American Games bronze medal in 1963 and represented Argentina at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, opening a path later followed by younger rowers from the same city, including the Olympians Sol Amaya and Dolores Amaya. Within the Club de Regatas San Nicolás he was regarded as one of the club's greatest sporting symbols.