Dimitrij Ovtcharov is number one in German table tennis – and had to cope with a personal stroke of fate.
Table tennis national player Dimitrij Ovtcharov mourns the loss of his grandmother, whom he initially helped to flee Kyiv after the outbreak of war.
“But the journey was incredibly difficult for her, she fell and didn’t survive,” said the 33-year-old to the Munich Merkur and the tz. He lost his grandmother “in the war, that’s what you have to say”.
“Friends spontaneously took her in the car”
Ovtcharov, born in Kyiv and the son of a former Soviet international, tried to get his 85-year-old grandmother out of her apartment in Kyiv when the war broke out. “Friends spontaneously took her in the car, she only had her handbag and her passport with her,” he told the SZ in April. But now she is dead.
Ovtcharov canceled his contract with the Russian club Fakel Orenburg after twelve years, in the coming season he will mainly play in the Champions League and in the cup for TTC Neu-Ulm. “It was clear to me that things would not go on in Russia. I know many colleagues in Russia, Vladimir Samsonov is one of my best colleagues in table tennis ever. Telling them that we would probably never see each other again was very hard for me It was just really difficult on all fronts,” said the two-time European champion.
But there were also positives for the recently injured Ovtcharov. “My ankle is holding up and I’ve had offspring,” says the two-time Olympic bronze medalist, who is aiming for his third European title in Munich in August: “My comeback went much better than expected. That gives me hope for the title here at the European Championship to fight.”