Tamara Boroš (born 19 December 1977) is a Croatian
table tennis
Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...
player. She is one of the relatively rare European players in modern times who successfully competed at the highest level against Asian players.
Boroš was born in a
Hungarian family in
Senta
Senta ( sr-cyrl, Сента, ; Hungarian language, Hungarian: ''Zenta'', ; Romanian language, Romanian: ''Zenta'') is a town and municipality located in Vojvodina, Serbia. It is situated on the bank of the Tisza, Tisa river in the geographical ...
. As a junior, she played for the local table tennis club STK Senta. After the outbreak of
Yugoslav Wars
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related#Naimark, Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and Insurgency, insurgencies that took place from 1991 to 2001 in what had been the Socialist Federal Republic of ...
in 1991, she stayed in Sweden, finally settling in Zagreb, Croatia with her parents in 1993.
Neven Cegnar became her new coach.
Boroš was the World's number 2 player in 2002. At the World Championship in Paris in 2003 she won the bronze medal, and became the first European to win a WC medal after ten years. Only three non-Asian players won medals at the World Championship between 1973 and 2005.
She won 12 medals at the European Table Tennis Championships. In 1998 she won silver, and in 2000, 2002 and 2005 she won the bronze medal in women's singles. She is a three-time European Champion in women's doubles (2002, 2003 and 2005). With the Croatian national team she won silver medals in 2003 and 2005, and bronze in 2000, 2008 and 2009.
At the
Mediterranean Games
The Mediterranean Games is a multi-sport event organised by the International Committee of Mediterranean Games (CIJM). It is held every four years among athletes from countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea in Africa, Asia and Europe. The fi ...
she won a gold medal in 2001 and 2005, and a silver medal in 1997 in the women's singles event. She won a gold medal in 1997 in the women's doubles event.
Boroš retired from competitive table tennis in 2012. After working as a coach at the in
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
,
in 2017 Boroš started working for the German Table Tennis Association, coaching the national U-23 team in
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...
. Since 2021 she is coaching the German national Women's team.
In 2015, Boroš was inducted into the
European Table Tennis Hall of Fame.
References
External links
Table tennis results* (a 2013 documentary film about Tamara Boroš, in Croatian, with English subtitles)
1977 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Senta
Croatian female table tennis players
Croatian table tennis coaches
Table tennis players at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Table tennis players at the 2000 Summer Olympics
Table tennis players at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Table tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Olympic table tennis players for Croatia
Mediterranean Games gold medalists for Croatia
Mediterranean Games silver medalists for Croatia
Competitors at the 1997 Mediterranean Games
Competitors at the 2001 Mediterranean Games
Competitors at the 2005 Mediterranean Games
Mediterranean Games medalists in table tennis
Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Austria
Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Germany
Croatian people of Hungarian descent
Serbian emigrants to Croatia
Yugoslav Wars refugees
Hungarians in Vojvodina
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