Žarko Dolinar

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Žarko Dolinar (July 3, 1920 – March 9, 2003), Ph.D., a native of Koprivnica, Croatia (Yugoslavia for much of his life) achieved eight medals in world table tennis championship competitions.

He was born in a family of Slovene economic immigrants to Croatia.[1] In 1939, at the age of 18 he became the national champion of Yugoslavia.[2] Dolinar was champion of the Independent State of Croatia multiple times, and also competed for its national team on nine occasions.[3]

Dolinar is the only world sporting champion with a doctoral degree in biology, according to Darko Žubrinić; the Zagreb-based writer reported this in 1995[4]. 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).

As well as being university professor in Zagreb and in Basel, he was also honored as one of the Righteous Among the Nations for saving, together with his brother Boris, about 300 Jews during World War II.[5]

He died at the age of 82 in Basel, Switzerland.

[edit] Quotation

  • "The first thing I have learned in sport is how to lose."

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.ceeol.com/aspx/getdocument.aspx?logid=5&id=6c90d3ce-8e89-47ea-bc74-5d0de28734c0
  2. ^ History of Croatian Table Tennis
  3. ^ http://www.hkz-kkv.ch/pdf/do93.pdf
  4. ^ Darko Žubrinić: "Sports in Croatia"
  5. ^ Darko Žubrinić: "'Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac and saving the Jews in Croatia during the WW2"

[edit] External links

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