DVORAK Galia

Grip
Shakehand (ITTF, 02 Aug 2016)

Style of play
Attack (ITTF, 02 Aug 2016)

General
LATE CALL
She was given a place at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro after French player Carole Grundisch was ruled out due to injury. She only had two weeks to prepare. "Once I was there, playing at the Olympics is always a very special feeling, but I was a little sad that I couldn't perform at my best because I got my qualification in the last minute. I was thinking that maybe mentally I wasn't fully prepared and I didn't do my best. That's the reason for all these mixed emotions." (ittf.com, 10 Aug 2017)

FROM UKRAINE TO SPAIN
She was born in Ukraine to a Ukrainian father and a Kazakhstani mother. The family moved to Spain when she was age one. "It was the last years of the Soviet Union and my father signed with a Spanish team in Granada. Then they came to Spain. As we did not have more family in Spain they sent me to play table tennis as they did not know what to do with me." (mundodeportivo.com, 03 Jun 2021; sport.es, 14 Apr 2015)

FURTHER EDUCATION
She has a masters' degree in business communication from the Open University of Barcelona in Spain. (LinkedIn profile, 01 Mar 2021)

OTHER ROLES
She has served as president of athletes' commission at the European Table Tennis Union [ETTU] and as vice president of the athletes' commission at the International Table Tennis Federation [ITTF]. (LinkedIn profile, 01 Mar 2021)