Richard Bergmann (10 April 1919 – 5 April 1970) was an Austrian-British international table tennis player. Winner of seven World Championships, including four Singles, one Men's Doubles, two Team's titles and 22 medals in total.[2] He is considered to be one of the greatest players in history, only Viktor Barna has won more World Championship gold medals in singles.

Richard Bergmann
Richard Bergmann in 1950
Personal information
Nationality England  Austria
Born10 April 1919
Vienna, Austria
Died5 April 1970 (aged 50)[1]
London Borough of Wandsworth, UK
Medal record
Table tennis
Representing  Austria
World Championships
Silver medal – second place 1938 Wembley Singles
Silver medal – second place 1938 Wembley Team
Gold medal – first place 1937 Baden Singles
Silver medal – second place 1937 Baden Doubles
Bronze medal – third place 1936 Prague Singles
Gold medal – first place 1936 Prague Team
Representing  England
World Championships
Bronze medal – third place 1955 Utrecht Team
Bronze medal – third place 1954 Wembley Singles
Bronze medal – third place 1954 Wembley Team
Silver medal – second place 1953 Bucharest Doubles
Gold medal – first place 1953 Bucharest Team
Silver medal – second place 1952 Bombay Doubles
Silver medal – second place 1952 Bombay Team
Gold medal – first place 1950 Budapest Singles
Bronze medal – third place 1950 Budapest Team
Bronze medal – third place 1949 Stockholm Doubles
Bronze medal – third place 1949 Stockholm Team
Gold medal – first place 1948 Wembley Singles
Bronze medal – third place 1948 Wembley Doubles
Bronze medal – third place 1948 Wembley Mixed Doubles
Gold medal – first place 1939 Cairo Singles
Gold medal – first place 1939 Cairo Doubles

Table tennis career

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His 22 World Championship medals[3] include seven gold medals; two in the men's team, one in the men's doubles at the 1936 World Table Tennis Championships with Viktor Barna and four times in the singles at the 1937, 1939, 1948 and 1950.[4][5]

Legacy

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Bergmann was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1982,[6] and into the International Table Tennis Foundation Hall of Fame in 1993 as one of twelve founding members.[7] Since 1967, the Richard Bergmann Fair Play Trophy is contested at the Liebherr World Championships.[1]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Vladimir Samsonov Receives Swaythling Club Fair Play Award in Paris Archived 6 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine. ittf.com. 21 May 2013
  2. ^ "BERGMANN Richard (ENG)". Ittf.com. Archived from the original on 6 July 2010. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  3. ^ "Table Tennis World Championship medal winners". Sports123.
  4. ^ Montague, Trevor (2004). A-Z of Sport, pages 699-700. The Bath Press. ISBN 0-316-72645-1.
  5. ^ Matthews/Morrison, Peter/Ian (1987). The Guinness Encyclopaedia of Sports Records and Results, pages 309-312. Guinness Superlatives. ISBN 0-85112-492-5.
  6. ^ "Richard Bergmann". International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. Retrieved 29 July 2010.
  7. ^ "ITTF Hall of Fame" (PDF). ITTF. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 June 2011. Retrieved 29 July 2010.