- Žarko Dolinar
Žarko Dolinar (
July 3 ,1920 –March 9 ,2003 ), Ph.D., a native ofKoprivnica ,Croatia (Yugoslavia for much of his life) achieved eight medals in worldtable tennis championship competitions.He was born in a family of Slovene economic immigrants to Croatia. [ [http://www.ceeol.com/aspx/getdocument.aspx?logid=5&id=6c90d3ce-8e89-47ea-bc74-5d0de28734c0 CEEOL Migration and Ethnic Themes , Issue 4 /2006 ] ] In 1939, at the age of 18 he became the national champion of Yugoslavia. [ [http://www.hsts.hr/history.php History of Croatian Table Tennis] ] Dolinar was champion of the
Independent State of Croatia multiple times, and also competed for its national team on nine occasions. [http://www.hkz-kkv.ch/pdf/do93.pdf]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 [ [http://www.hr/darko/etf/sport.html Darko Žubrinić: "Sports in Croatia"] ] . He was world doubles champion with his partner, Vilim Harangozo. Dolinar was also head of the Sports Science Committee for theInternational Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).As well as being university professor in
Zagreb and inBasel , he was also honored as one of theRighteous Among the Nations for saving, together with his brother Boris, about 300 Jews during World War II. [ [http://www.hr/darko/etf/jews.html Darko Žubrinić: "'Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac and saving the Jews in Croatia during the WW2"] ]He died at the age of 82 in
Basel ,Switzerland .Quotation
* "The first thing I have learned in sport is how to lose."
References
External links
* [http://www.stkindustrogradnja.hr/dolinar.htm "Tribute to Žarko Dolinar" by STK Industrogradnja, in Croatian]
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