Sydney priest Fr Peter Krigovsky is making a name for himself as a table tennis player. Source: The Catholic Weekly.
Fr Krigovsky, parish priest of St Mary Queen of Heaven in Georges Hall, recently represented Australia in the 2026 Table Tennis Australia National Veterans Championships. He brought home several medals in various categories, including three bronze, one silver, and one gold.
The competition was held in Albury, New South Wales, last month. It comprised singles, doubles, mixed doubles, and team categories, catering to about 400 players aged over 30 to over 85, from across Australia and New Zealand.
Fr Krigovsky recalled the moment that he fell in love with the game.
“Table tennis was my first love; at 8 years old, I saw it being played, asked my dad to enrol me into a club, and stayed with it ever since,” he said.
“I competed all throughout my childhood, high school years, and also at university whilst studying engineering.”
Fr Krigovsky left Slovakia, his home country, for Australia in his 20s, after realising there would be no future for a person of strong faith in a communist regime.
On his way to Australia, he spent a year in Italy, where he continued playing competitive table tennis. There he met a group of seminarians who had also emigrated. They encouraged him to consider joining the priesthood.
Fr Krigovsky arrived in Australia in 1985, where he completed his studies at the now UTS and played competitively for NSW for several years, before he entered the seminary in 1995.
“After joining the seminary, I stopped playing table tennis. In fact, I basically forgot about it,” Fr Krigovsky said. “It wasn’t until I came back to Sydney in 2009, when I was looking for some exercise other than running on the treadmill, that I remembered I used to play.”
Fr Krigovsky started playing for various clubs and in competitions, before representing NSW in the national veterans championships, in which he has competed for the past four years.
He shares his enthusiasm for the sport with his parish. He has purchased a good-quality table for the church, which gets used at social events and sessions for children in years 4 and above once a term.
FULL STORY
Parish priest strikes gold at table tennis nationals (By Elizabeth Nunes, The Catholic Weekly)
