Žarko Dolinar
Žarko Dolinar at the 1955 World Championships
Personal information
Nationality Yugoslavia
Born3 July 1920
Koprivnica, Yugoslavia
Died9 March 2003 (aged 82)
Basel, Switzerland
Medal record
Table tennis
Representing  Yugoslavia
World Championships
Silver medal – second place 1939 Cairo Team
Bronze medal – third place 1939 Cairo Singles
Bronze medal – third place 1951 Vienna Team
Silver medal – second place 1953 Bucharest Mixed doubles
Gold medal – first place 1954 Wembley Doubles
Bronze medal – third place 1954 Wembley Mixed doubles
Silver medal – second place 1955 Utrecht Singles
Silver medal – second place 1955 Utrecht Doubles

Žarko Dolinar (3 July 1920 – 9 March 2003) was a Croatian biologist and table tennis player who won eight medals at the World Table Tennis Championships.[1]

He was born in a family of Slovene economic immigrants to Croatia.[2] In 1939, at the age of 18 he became the national champion of Yugoslavia.[3] Dolinar was champion of the Independent State of Croatia multiple times, and also competed for its national team on nine occasions.[4]

He also won three English Open titles.

Dolinar is one of few world sporting champions with a Ph.D. degree.[5] He graduated from the University of Zagreb Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in 1949, and received a doctorate in 1959.[6] He was world doubles champion with his partner, Vilim Harangozo. Dolinar was also head of the Sports Science Committee for the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).

A university professor in both Zagreb and Basel, Dolinar and his brother Boris were honored as the Righteous Among the Nations for saving Jews during World War II. On a number of occasions, the Dolinar brothers provided Jews with forged identity documents and travel permits, used their connections to have them released from imprisonment, and helped them travel to safety.[7]

In 2016, Dolinar was inducted into the European Table Tennis Hall of Fame.[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "DOLINAR Zarko (YUG) " Archived 16 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine. ITTF Database
  2. ↑ Vera Krzisnik Bukic (2006). "Znameniti Slovenci na Hrvaškem skozi zgodovino". CEEOL Migration and Ethnic Themes. 22 (4): 421–445.
  3. ↑ Povijest hrvatskog stolnog tenisa (History of Croatian Table Tennis). hsts.hr
  4. ↑ "ŽARKO DOLINAR. 1920 – 2003" (PDF). Društvene obavijesti. 93/94: 11. 2003.
  5. 1 2 "Zarko Dolinar". European Table Tennis Hall of Fame. European Table Tennis Union. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  6. ↑ "U 83. godini umro Žarko Dolinar, slavni stolnotenisač i znanstvenik". index.hr
  7. ↑ "Boris and Žarko Dolinar". yadvashem.org. Yad Vashem. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Žarko Dolinar.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.