Magda Gál (married name Házi) (1907-1990), was a female Hungarian international

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.

Table tennis career

She was a prolific

World Table Tennis Championships The World Table Tennis Championships are table tennis competitions sanctioned by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). The World Championships have been held since 1926, biennially since 1957. Five individual events, which include men ...

medal winner and secured eight

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc ...

s and twelve

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

s from the

1929 World Table Tennis Championships The 3rd World Table Tennis Championships were held in Budapest from January 14 to January 21, 1929. Medalists Team Individual References External linksITTF Museum {{World Table Tennis Championships World Table Tennis Championships Worl ...

to the

1936 World Table Tennis Championships The 1936 World Table Tennis Championships were held in Prague from March 12 to March 18, 1936. The championships were criticised for the bad management and poor tables. The Lucerna Palace arena (a 4,000-seat, underground concert hall) conditions ...

. Gál came short of a

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

for two reasons; first the fact that with various doubles partners she was unable to overcome the six times world champion pairing of

Mária Mednyánszky Mária Mednyánszky (7 April 1901 Budapest – 22 December 1978 also Budapest) was a Hungarian international table tennis star. Table tennis career She became the first official women's world champion winning the women's singles event gol ...

and

Anna Sipos Anna Sipos (3 April 1908 – 1 January 1988) was a Hungarian international table tennis player. Table tennis career She won 21 medals in the World Table Tennis Championships Eleven of these were gold medals. including six consecutive women's dou ...

, and secondly the

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

effectively ended her chances to compete at world level. She did however continue to play in the United States. She also won two

English Open The English Open was a professional golf tournament held in England. First played in 1988, it was an annual event on the European Tour until 2002. After several aborted attempts at reviving the tournament, it returned to the tour schedule in 20 ...

titles.

Personal life

Gál was born into a banking family was the only woman competitor on the table tennis team at the

University of Szeged , mottoeng = Truth. Bravery. Freedom. , established = , type = Public research university , founder = Emperor Franz Joseph I , affiliation = European University Association, Science Without Borders, Confucius Institute , budget = US$220 mi ...

. She married her fellow international player

Tibor Házi Tibor Házi born Tibor Hoffmann, (February 9, 1912 – February 18, 1999), was a male international table tennis player from Hungary. Sports career He won nine medals in singles, doubles, and team events in the World Table Tennis Championsh ...

in 1937 and in 1939 they fled to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

because of their Jewish origins and they settled in

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which in ...

. She died in 1990 aged 83 and Házi died in 1999.

References

Hungarian female table tennis players 1907 births 1990 deaths American female table tennis players World Table Tennis Championships medalists 20th-century American women 20th-century American people {{Hungary-tabletennis-bio-stub

Table tennis career

Personal life

See also

References