Richard Bergmann

Richard Bergmann ( born April 10, 1919 in Vienna, † April 5, 1970 in London Borough of Wandsworth ) was a table tennis player. ( Some sources give the year of birth 1920, other sources say that he had died in 1969. ) He won four individual world champion, once as Austrians and three times as an Englishman.

Career

Bergmann was born in Vienna as the son of Polish and Italian parents; He had four sisters and one brother. In 1937 he became world champion for the first time. With its 17 (or 18) years, he is still (2004) the youngest table tennis world champion. A year earlier, he had already won with the Austrian team's World Team Championship.

When the Germans in 1938 Austria eingliederten, he wandered - as a native Jew - to England. He took British citizenship. Already at the World Championships in 1939, he started as an Englishman; he was again champion in singles and in doubles.

After the Second World War, he was again in 1948 and 1950 World Champion. In 1951, he could not defend his title because the English Table Tennis Association ETTA detained from June 30, 1950 due to non-approved competitions in South Africa. In the 1954 World Cup he won in the team competition against all three Japanese. His 1948 closed were divorced two years later.

In 1950 he published the book Twenty-one Up (Sporting Handbooks, London).

The mid-1950s began miner to earn his living by playing table tennis by first organized with Johnny Leach worldwide exhibition matches and then went with the American Harlem Globetrotters basketball team on tour, at times accompanied by the American Robert Gusikoff. He was the first pro at table tennis. Because of these mock battles he has been banned in the early 1960s again in England. Therefore he joined in 1963 the U.S. Table Tennis Association at.

1970 Bergmann died of a brain tumor.

Honors

Bergmann was considered an excellent defender with excellent positional play and a lot of self -confidence. They called him occasionally Richard the Lionheart. According to him, " The Richard Bergmann Fair Play Award" in 1970 named a price that gives the SCI ( Swaythling Club International ) for very fair behavior of a player.

1982 Bergmann was inducted into the " International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame".

Achievements

World Championships 1936 in Prague: 3rd place individual, 1st place team with Austria,
1937 in Baden: World champion in singles, doubles 2nd place with Helmut Goebel, 4th place with Team Austria
1938 in London: 2nd place individual, 2nd place with Team Austria
1939 in Cairo: World champion in singles, 1st doubles with Victor Barna
1948 in London: World champion in singles, 3rd doubles with Victor Barna, 3rd place Mixed with Angelica Adelstein - Rozeanu (ROM)
1949 in Stockholm: 3rd place with double days Flisberg (SWE ), 3rd place with Team England
In Budapest in 1950: World Champion in singles, 3rd place with Team England
1952 in Bombay: 2nd place doubles with Johnny Leach, 2nd place with Team England
1953 in Bucharest: 2nd place doubles with Johnny Leach, 1st place with Team England
1954 in London: 3rd place individual, 3rd place with Team England
1955 in Utrecht: 3rd place with Team England

Open English Championships 1939: 1st place individual
1940: 1st place individual, 1st doubles (with Alfred Dearest )
1948: 1st place individual, 1st doubles (with Flisberg days )
1950: 1st place individual, 1st doubles (with Victor Barna )
1952: 1st place individual
1953: 1st place doubles (with Johnny Leach )
1954: 1st place individual

Results from the ITTF database

681536