Angelita Rosal, also known as Angie Rosal Bengtsson, (born 1951) is a former American professional
table tennis
Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...
player and coach. Born of a Dakota mother of the
Spirit Lake Tribe
The Spirit Lake Tribe (in Santee Dakota: ''Mniwakaƞ Oyate'', also spelt as ''Mni Wakan Oyate'', formerly known as Devils Lake Sioux Tribe) is a federally recognized tribe based on the Spirit Lake Dakota Reservation located in east-central North ...
and a
Filipino
Filipino may refer to:
* Something from or related to the Philippines
** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines.
** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...
father, Rosal is inducted both in the Indian Athletic Hall of Fame and the United States of America Table Tennis Hall of Fame, the first female to be so honored. She was particularly successful in doubles, winning four US titles.
Career
Angelita Rosal began playing table tennis at the age of nine or ten years old. She attended her first
United States Olympic Training Center
The United States Olympic & Paralympic Training Centers (OPTCs) are two campuses created by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) as training facilities for its Olympic and Paralympic athletes. They are located in Colorado Sprin ...
at age eleven in 1967 and quickly showed her match-winning ability. In 1968, she won the national Under-Thirteen championship, following up the following year winning the Under-Fifteen crown. She continued to be successful, competing in ten
USA Table Tennis
USA Table Tennis, colloquially known as USATT, is the non-profit governing body for table tennis in the United States and is responsible for cataloging and sanctioning table tennis tournaments within the country. It was founded in 1933 as the Uni ...
National titles over her career. She was particularly successful in doubles, winning the title at the U.S. National Table Tennis Champions with He-ja Lee no less than three times, in 1978, 1979 and 1980, and once with Jin Na in 1982.
Honours
*1973 First female selected to the Indian Athletic Hall of Fame.
*1996 Inducted into the United States of America Table Tennis Hall of Fame.
Personal life
Rosal was born to a Filipino father and Sioux mother, one of seven children. Two of her siblings, Chris and Monica, were also good table tennis players. The family lived on the
Fort Totten, North Dakota
Fort Totten is a census-designated place (CDP) in Benson County, North Dakota, United States. The population was 1,243 at the 2010 census. Fort Totten is located within the Spirit Lake Reservation and is the site of tribal headquarters. The reser ...
, but moved to
San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...
before she was eleven. In 1975, she developed typhoid while in
Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
and also had a religious conversion. She married Tom Sistruck and had her first child, Succo Li, in 1977, and then, in 1985, she married