Viktor Barna

{{Infobox table tennis player

| name= Viktor Barna

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| nationality = Hungarian, English

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| birth_name = Győző Braun

| birth_date = {{birth date|1911|8|24|df=y}}

| birth_place = Budapest, Austria-Hungary

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1972|2|27|1911|8|24|df=y}}

| death_place = Lima, Peru

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{{MedalCountry | {{HUN}} }}

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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.[https://web.archive.org/web/20090413142341/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,788543,00.html 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 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.{{cite web|url=http://isoh.org/cause-view/the-history-of-sport-and-physical-educationamong-the-jewish-people-in-hungary-in-the-last-120-years/|title=The History of Sport and Physical Education among the Jewish People in Hungary in the Last 120 Years|publisher=ISOH}}

Writing

In 1957, he published the book "How to Win at Table Tennis" (London: Pitman) {{ISBN|978-0-273-41699-9}}.[https://www.amazon.com/How-Win-at-Table-Tennis/dp/0273416995 Amazon] Then, in 1962, he published the book Table Tennis Today (London: Arthur Barker) and in 1971 Your Book of Table Tennis {{ISBN|978-0-571-09345-8}}.

Legacy

Barna, who was Jewish, 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.ittf.com/museum/HallofFame.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2008-12-29 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617005939/http://www.ittf.com/museum/HallofFame.pdf |archive-date=17 June 2011 }}

References

External links

{{cite web|url=http://www.wembleyharrowtt.f9.co.uk/barna%202p%2010-03.doc |title=Bio, October 2003 |access-date=24 September 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040708044600/http://www.wembleyharrowtt.f9.co.uk/barna%202p%2010-03.doc |archive-date=8 July 2004 }}
[http://www.hardbat.com/hbbarna.html Cigarette card bio]
[http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/ViktorGyozoBarna.htm Jewish Sports bio]
{{usurped|[https://web.archive.org/web/20100811211404/http://www.hinduonnet.com/tss/tss2841/stories/20051008002506800.htm "The Magnificent Magyar", October 2005]}}