Dimitrij Ovtcharov was born in Kiev on 2 September 1988 as the son of Mikhail, a multiple Soviet national table tennis player, and his mother Tatjana.
Due to the reactor outbreak in Chernobyl, the young family had decided to leave Kiev and moved to Germany via Poland. The destination: the district of Hameln-Pyrmont between Hamburg and Hanover. The 4-year-old Dima Ovtcharov subsequently grows up in the district of Tündern with a population of about 2600.
Dima is known in the table tennis scene as a meticulous worker who leaves nothing to chance and who works hard on himself. The family atmosphere in Tündern allows him to concentrate fully on table tennis. With the club TSV Schwalbe Tündern he climbs up to the 1st Bundesliga and establishes himself as a professional in the highest German division.
The next step was to be taken: in order to climb the next rung on the career ladder, Dima moved to the record table tennis champions, Borussia from Düsseldorf, in 2007. The then 19-year-old Ovtcharov won the German championship with the club in 2008 and 2009.
With winning the silver medal with the team at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and regular successes on the ITTF World Tour, Dima’s triumphal procession on the international stage also begins. Since then, it has been impossible to imagine the world without him.
After 3 successful years with the record champion from Düsseldorf, Dima will play for Royal Villette Charleroi in Belgium in 2010. In his only year for the club, he finishes second in the Champions League with the team.
With the move to the Russian club from Orenburg, Ovtcharov began a very successful period of table tennis marked by countless successes on the national and international stage. For 12 years, the Ukrainian-born player played in Orenburg before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine completely changed his life as a person and athlete. His priority is his family, some of whom still live in Kiev.
Dima starts a new beginning with the German club TTC Neu-Ulm. Together with other stars like Lin Yun-Ju, Tomikazu Harimoto & Truls Moregardh, Dima forms a world-class team that will compete for the Champions League title.
A multiple national player for the Soviet Union, his father Mikhail Ovtcharov was already a successful table tennis player. Dima was born to play table tennis. Already at an early age his father started to shape his table tennis career and to train with him every day. Today he is still his closest confidant, trainer and physiotherapist.
Dimitrij Ovtchtarov 🏓
German national player
6x Olympic medallist
Former number 1 in the world rankings
