Viktor Győző Barna (Braun) (24 August 1911 – 27 February 1972) was a Hungarian and

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

champion

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

player as well as a record five times singles

World Champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

. He won 41 World Championship medals and also won 20

English Open The English Open was a professional golf tournament held in England. First played in 1988, it was an annual event on the European Tour until 2002. After several aborted attempts at reviving the tournament, it returned to the tour schedule in 20 ...

titles.

Personal life

Barna's birth name was Győző Braun, but, because of

anti-Semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

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 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, 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 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 Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of t ...

. His brother Tibor Barna was the 1940 Hungarian table tennis national champion.

Writing

In 1962 he published the book ''Table Tennis Today'' (London: Arthur Barker) and in 1971 ''Your Book of Table Tennis'' . In 1957 he published the book "How to win at Table Tennis" (London: Pitman)

Hall of fame

Barna, who was

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

ish, was inducted into the

International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame ( he, יד לאיש הספורט היהודי, translit=Yad Le'ish HaSport HaYehudi) was opened July 7, 1981 in Netanya, Israel. It honors Jewish athletes and their accomplishments from anywhere around ...

in 1981. Barna was inducted into the International Table Tennis Foundation Hall of Fame in 1993.

References

External links

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Cigarette card bio
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Barna, Viktor 1911 births 1972 deaths Jewish table tennis players Hungarian male table tennis players English male table tennis players Hungarian emigrants to England Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom British Jews Hungarian Jews Table tennis players from Budapest British Army personnel of World War II

Personal life

Writing

Hall of fame

See also

References

External links