Bruno Schmidt: Always ready for the next challenge

Anyone seeing a smiley Bruno Schmidt lifting his gold medal up in the air and waving to over 10,000 ecstatic fans at the iconic Copacabana venue at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games was seeing the Brazilian enjoying the best moment of his life on that rainy night.

Many of the fans who witnessed that historical success, however, might not realise just how difficult it was for Bruno to get to that glorious moment.

Born and raised in a beach volleyball-rich country , Bruno, who is the nephew of legendary basketball player Oscar Schmidt, was quick to demonstrate the intelligence and skills that would one day earn him the nickname ‘The Magician’. The first promising signs came in 2006, when he won the FIVB U21 World Championship with Pedro Solberg.

But his size, and more specifically his height, were not on a par with his skills, and raised questions among coaches, who often discouraged him, and players, who turned him down as a partner to pick taller teammates.

“It’s very difficult to be an elite player my height,” the 1.85m Bruno said. “I had to face all sorts of obstacles and I felt like a lot of people took me for granted. I thought about giving up quite a few times, especially when I realised my high school friends were all graduating from college and starting their careers. I asked myself if I wasn’t just wasting my time on a dream I’d never be able to accomplish, and more than once the only reason that made me continue was my father. He always said ‘it will be difficult, but you will become a champion.”

When Bruno rejoined Pedro to win a pair of FIVB World Tour events in 2013 and took home the first of his four Best Defensive Player awards, however, the questions revolving around his height were answered.

The new scenario granted Bruno an opportunity to join London 2012 silver medallist Alison Cerutti in 2014 and, after a few months of early struggles, the team completely dominated the 2015 international season, winning as many as six events, among them the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship in the Netherlands.

The pair's great form and Bruno being picked as the Most Outstanding Player of the 2015 World Tour season set the team up as favourites to take gold at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Ranked number one in the world and counting on the support of their home fans, the Brazilians had a bumpy start, but kept progressing in the tournament. After each match, however, those who knew Bruno well could see in his body language and in the lack of smiles that he was dealing with way too much pressure.

Dealing with the expectations of securing that gold medal and making his country proud, Bruno hardly looked like himself during the Games, and developed a routine that included very limited sleeping hours and calls to his father and his fiancée in the middle of the night.

Somehow, however, it all worked out. And immediately after the ball touched the sand in the last point of the gold medal match, he sprinted to the stands to hug his father and family. Bruno reported having lost four kilos due to stress during the Olympics, but at that moment it seemed like at least 100 times that weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

“Every night, I’d go to bed at three and would be up at five,” he recalled. “I was so tired and stressed. I tried to hide it, but I had never felt that much pressure before. It was such a huge responsibility and I didn’t want to let people down. I can’t really explain how I felt when it was over. I couldn’t have ever imagined such a special feeling. And I had to thank my father for it. I gave him my Olympic medal and it doesn’t even come close to repaying what he did for me.”

Challenges, however, never stop coming, even if you are an Olympic champion. After four and half years of success, Alison and Bruno decided to split in May 2018 and to chase another appearance at the Olympics with different partners.

His first move was to rejoin Pedro, but just a few months later he switched partners again, scooping 2017 world champion Evandro Goncalves. The team had undeniable potential, but also had little time to work on their act as the qualification process for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics had already started.

The first two tournaments weren’t easy, with Bruno and Evandro having to settle for 17th-place finishes, but they made their first final a few weeks later in Jinjiang and started to look like the team everyone expected them to be.

There were still ups and downs, most notably with their only victory so far, in Warsaw, being followed by another 17th at the World Championships, but a bronze medal in Gstaad and a pair of fifth-place finishes have put the team in a good spot.

Things seemed to be getting on track when Bruno sustained a thigh injury, however, during the Round of 16 at the Vienna Major. The Brazilian could barely walk off the court on Danube Island. Fortunately, he was back on court just ten days later.

Evandro and Bruno finished fifth at both the Moscow four-star and the FIVB World Tour Finals in Rome to secure the right to represent Brazil at the Tokyo Game should the country have two berths at the end of the qualification period.

“People might think that after you become an Olympic champion everything comes easy, but that’s not the case,” he said. “Each year comes with new obstacles and you need to be ready. I had to deal with a serious injury in 2019 and was so scared and upset that it could hurt Evandro’s chances of qualifying. After the injury, I was skipping practise and saving all I had for the tournaments. When the season was over, it took me three entire weeks without any kind of activity to recover.”

We don’t know what the next obstacles in Bruno’s path will be, but one thing is for sure: he’ll be ready for them.  

Read more: Roster 100 to showcase stars of volleyball and beach volleyball

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