Dima Ovtcharov: King of Europe

On the Road to Rio Last month, Dimitrij Ovtcharov defended and retained his title of European Men’s Champion. His dominant performance extended to the team event as well, finishing without a single loss through a week of play against the best that Europe had to offer. With the title, Ovtcharov qualified for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, an opportunity to improve upon his 2012 Bronze medal in London. He followed up his great results at the European Championships with a third place finish at the Men’s World Cup in Halmstad, Sweden in October, 2015. His only loss was to World No.1 Ma Long. World Ranked #4 Ovtcharov has now matched his highest World Ranking. The Donic star has risen to No. 4 in the world, eclipsing the other European players. In fact, he trails only three Chinese players in the rankings. He continues to work in the gym and at the table as he makes every effort to improve. He will return to his Chinese Super League team, Jiangsu, where he will face the world’s best in regular competition. And he DIMA OVTCHAROV KING OF EUROPE has taken on Jorgen Persson as his personal coach, a coach with a long history of competing successfully against the Chinese. Each of these efforts is designed to bring Ovtcharov to the next level. He will compete for Germany in the World Team Championships Feb. 28-March 6th in Kuala Lumpur, and he has a goal to reach peak performance next summer in Rio at the 2016 Olympic Games.