Viktor Győző Barna (born Győző Braun; 24 August 1911 – 27 February 1972) was a Hungarian and British champion table tennis player as well as a record five times singles World Champion.[ Table Tennis. Time Magazine. 4 February 1935]
He won 41 World Championship medals (including 22 gold medals) and also won 20 English Open titles.
Personal life
Barna's birth name was Győző Braun, but because of
anti-Semitism in Hungary at the time, he changed his name to a Hungarian-sounding name. In September 1939, during the outbreak of the Second World War, he and his wife were in America. Barna returned to Europe, in order to fight against the Nazis. He joined the British army as a parachutist, and fought in Yugoslavia. After the British withdrew from Yugoslavia, Barna remained in England. After the war he settled with his wife in London. He became a British national in 1952. Later he became a representative for the
Dunlop Sport Sports Company and continued traveling the world in this capacity. It was during one of these tours in 1972 that he succumbed to a heart attack in
Lima, Peru.
His brother Tibor Barna was the 1940 Hungarian table tennis national champion.
Writing
In 1957, he published the book "How to Win at Table Tennis" (London: Pitman) .
[ Amazon] Then, in 1962, he published the book
Table Tennis Today (London: Arthur Barker) and in 1971
Your Book of Table Tennis .
Legacy
Barna, who was
Jews, was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1981.
Barna was inducted into the International Table Tennis Foundation Hall of Fame in 1993.
See also
-
List of select Jewish table tennis players
-
List of World Table Tennis Championships medalists
-
List of England players at the World Team Table Tennis Championships
External links
