HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Thelma Thall “Tybie” Sommer (born 1924) is the only living American woman to have won two World Table Tennis Championships. She received the USA Table Tennis Lifetime Achievement Award, and is in the Table Tennis Hall of Fame. She says that she excelled "because of her natural athleticism and her ability to analyze and remain objective."


Early career

Thall was born in 1924 in
Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, an ...
, and is Jewish. A tomboy as a little girl, she played much football and softball. When she was 13, she won a tennis racket in a Bingo game. Never having had any lessons, and yet seeing the similarities with
softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...
, she represented Livingston Park and won the City Junior Tennis Championship. At the age of 15, she was the Captain of the Varsity Boys' Tennis Team at East High School, the only girl ever to play on the boys' team, let alone be Captain. She graduated 1st in a class of 550 students.


1940s achievements

In 1947, Thelma "Tybie" Thall won her first U.S. Open Women’s Doubles Championship with her sister Leah. They also won the Canadian Nationals that year. In 1948, Thelma and Richard Miles were the first Americans to win the World’s Mixed Doubles Title, in Wembley, London, England. In 1949, Thalla, as a member of the USA Team, won Singles and Doubles in the Corbillon Cup, a World Championship Event, in
Stockholm, Sweden Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropolita ...
. That year, Thall and Miles won the English Open Mixed Doubles and Thall, with
Peggy McLean Margaret 'Peggy' McLean (married name Folke), (born July 8, 1927) is a former international table tennis player from the United States. Table tennis career She has won two World Championship medals including a gold medal in the women's team ev ...
, won the English Open Women’s Doubles. Thall and her sister Leah won three U.S. National Women’s Doubles, in 1947, 1948, and 1949. The Thall Sisters also won the Canadian National Doubles in 1947 and 1948.


Later years

Thelma "Tybie" Thall Sommer was inducted into the United States Table Tennis Association Hall of Fame in 1980. Married with children, she won several Singles Tennis titles in the Northeastern United States. In 1962, she was on the founding board that created the North Shore Women’s Tennis League on
Long Island, NY Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18th ...
. In 2003, she was honored by that league at the Babe Zaharias Luncheon in N.Y., for creating the flourishing league, which now has over 2,000 participants. She won Mother/Daughter Tennis Titles in the state of Arizona, as well as the city of
Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...
, with daughter Marilyn, now a USPTA Tennis Pro. In 2005, Thelma "Tybie" Thall Sommer and Leah Thall Neuberger received the USA Table Tennis Mark Mathews Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2012, she presented "The Thall Sisters Cup,” a newly created trophy to the winner of the Women’s Singles in the U.S. Open Table Tennis Championships. This perpetual trophy lists the winners from 1933 to the present (sister Leah won the US Open 9 times and the World's once; Thelma won the World's twice); while the winner each year gets a small replica, the original sits at the
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 ...
in
Colorado Springs, CO Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...
. Tybie won the first of many Gold Medals in 1987, the inaugural year of The National Senior Olympics. She continues to compete and win Gold Medals, having attended and won the Arizona Senior Olympics, Rocky Mountain Senior Games, the Huntsman Games in Utah, and the National Senior Games with Marilyn.


Honors

She received the USA Table Tennis Lifetime Achievement Award, and is in the Table Tennis Hall of Fame. Thall was inducted into the
International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame ( he, יד לאיש הספורט היהודי, translit=Yad Le'ish HaSport HaYehudi) was opened July 7, 1981 in Netanya, Israel. It honors Jewish athletes and their accomplishments from anywhere around ...
in 2017.">Thelma "Tybie" Thall-Sommer
/ref>


See also

* List of select Jewish table tennis players *
List of table tennis players This list of table tennis players is alphabetically ordered by surname. The main source of the information included in this page is the official International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) database. More detailed information about their careers is ...
*
List of World Table Tennis Championships medalists Results of individual events The tables below are medalists of individual events (men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles and mixed). Men's singles Medal table Women's singles The champion of women's singles in 1937 was declared ...


References


Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thall, Thelma 1924 births Living people American female table tennis players Sportspeople from Columbus, Ohio Jewish table tennis players Jewish American sportspeople 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American women