Galyna Volodymyrivna "Galia" Dvorak Khasanova (; born 1 April 1988) is a Spanish table tennis player. She was born in Kyiv, but her family moved to Spain when she was two. Both of her parents (Vladimir Dvorak and Flora Khasanova) were also international table tennis players. She won a bronze medal in the women's team event at the

2009 Mediterranean Games The 2009 Mediterranean Games, officially the XVI Mediterranean Games () and commonly known as Pescara 2009, was a multi-sport event held in Pescara, Italy, from 26 June to 5 July 2009. It was governed by the International Committee of Mediterran ...

Pescara Pescara (; ; ) is the capital city of the province of Pescara, in the Abruzzo Regions of Italy, region of Italy. It is the most populated city in Abruzzo, with 118,657 (January 1, 2023) residents (and approximately 350,000 including the surround ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. As of May 2019, Dvorak is ranked no. 94 in the world by the

International Table Tennis Federation The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) is the Sport governing body, governing body for all national table tennis associations that use ITTF-approved sponge table tennis rackets. The role of the ITTF includes overseeing rules and regula ...

(ITTF). Dvorak is a member of the table tennis team for

CN Mataró Centre Natació Mataró is a Catalan sports club from Mataró, Barcelona created in 1932. It is active in swimming, water polo, table tennis and triathlon A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of Swimming (sport), swimming, ...

, and is coached and trained by Peter Engel, Linus Mernsten, and her mother Flora Khasanova. She is also right-handed, and uses the classic grip. Dvorak made her official debut, as a 20-year-old, at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, where she competed only in the inaugural

women's team A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional uteruses ...

event. Playing with Chinese emigrants

Shen Yanfei Shen Yanfei (; born December 24, 1979, in Hebei, China) is a female Chinese-born table tennis player who now represents Spain and resides in Cartagena, Murcia. She competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics, reaching the third round of the singles c ...

and Zhu Fang, Dvorak placed third in the preliminary pool round, with a total of four points, two defeats from Japan and South Korea, and a single victory over the Australian trio

Miao Miao Miao Miao ( zh, c=苗苗, p=Miáo Miao) (born 14 January 1981, Tianjin, China) is an Australian table tennis player who represented Australia at the Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Summer Olympic Games. Her best Olympi ...

Jian Fang Lay Jian Fang Lay-Hong ( zh, c=洪剑芳, p=Hóng Jiànfāng; born 6 March 1973), is a right-handed Chinese-born Australian ladies table tennis player. She plays penhold, with a long pimple rubber at one side for use of attacking, blocking as well a ...

, and Stephanie Sang Xu. Four years after competing in her first Olympics, Dvorak qualified for her second Spanish team, as a 24-year-old, at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, by receiving an allocation spot from the Final World Qualifying Tournament in

Doha, Qatar Doha ( ) is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor and Lusail, it is home to most of the country's population. It is also Qatar's ...

. With a maximum of two quotas per nation in the singles tournament, Dvorak accepted the third spot, and thereby competed only in the

event, along with her fellow players

Sara Ramírez Sara Elena Ramírez Vargas (; born August 31, 1975) is an American actor. Born in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Ramírez moved from Mexico to the United States at eight years old, eventually graduating with a fine arts degree from the Juilliard School. ...

and

. Dvorak and her team lost the first round match to the formidable Chinese trio

Li Xiaoxia Li Xiaoxia (; born 16 January 1988) is a Chinese table tennis Grand Slam champion. Career She trained in the Jiangsu Wuxi Shanhe Club in Wuxi, China. Her trainer is Li Sun, who is also the mentor of Olympic gold medal winner Zhang Yining. As o ...

, Guo Yue, and

Ding Ning Ding Ning (; born 20 June 1990) is a former Chinese table tennis player. She was the winner of 2011 World Table Tennis Championships – Women's singles, women's singles in the 2011 World Table Tennis Championships. At the 2015 World Table Ten ...

, with a unanimous set score of 0–3 (4–11, 7–11, 12–14). At the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

, she competed in the women's singles only. She was a replacement for the injured French player Carole Grundisch. She lost to home player Lin Gui in her first match.

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dvorak, Galia 1988 births Living people Spanish female table tennis players Olympic table tennis players for Spain Table tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Table tennis players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Table tennis players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Table tennis players at the 2020 Summer Olympics European Games competitors for Spain Table tennis players at the 2015 European Games Table tennis players at the 2019 European Games Mediterranean Games bronze medalists for Spain Mediterranean Games medalists in table tennis Competitors at the 2009 Mediterranean Games Sportspeople from Kyiv Spanish people of Ukrainian descent 21st-century Spanish sportswomen