Olga Nemes

Romanian-born table tennis player Olga Nemes represented West Germany at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, and re-unified Germany in 1992 and 1996 at Barcelona and Atlanta. She participated in the women’s singles and doubles but never reached a quarter-final.

Nemes fled to West Germany in 1984 and received German citizenship the following year. In 1986 she published her biography Mein Tagebuch (My Diary). Her sister Tünde and her parents also followed her to West Germany in 1987. After not being considered for the 2004 Olympics, Nemes started to represent Romania again in 2005.

With the German team, Nemes won two European titles (1996 and 2000), and also five national individual titles. In total, she won 170 international caps for Germany. At club level she won the European Champions Cup in 1998 with Team Galaxis Lübeck. Nemes later married a Hungarian football professional and moved to his home country to work as a table tennis coach.