Žarko Dolinar
Croatian table tennis player
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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]
Žarko Dolinar (2002) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nationality |  Yugoslavia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 3 July 1920 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 9 March 2003 (aged 82) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Table tennis | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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He was born in a family of Slovene economic migrants 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]
