Diane Schöler (née Rowe on 14 April 1933) is a retired

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 from

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. In 1966 she married German table tennis player Eberhard Schöler, and since then competed for

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. From 1951 to 1972 she won several medals in single, double, and team events in the

Table Tennis European Championships The European Table Tennis Championships is an international table tennis competition for the national teams of the member associations of the European Table Tennis Union (ETTU). First held in 1958, the ETTU organised the European Championships ever ...

, and in the

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 m ...

. Rowe started training in table tennis aged 14, under

Viktor Barna Viktor Győző Barna (Braun) (24 August 1911 – 27 February 1972) was a Hungarian and British champion table tennis player as well as a record five times singles World Champion. He won 41 World Championship medals and also won 20 English O ...

. She is left-handed and until 1951 played a defensive style, but later put more accent on attacking. In early 1966, she married Eberhard Schöler and moved to

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...

, where she gave birth to a daughter. She retired from competitions in 1973 and until 1997 worked as a table tennis coach. In 1993 she received the ITTF Merit Award, and in 2001 the Dieter Mauritz Gedächtnispreis. She also won 17

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. Diane has a twin sister, Rosalind Rowe, who was also an international table tennis player and often played doubles together with Diane. In 1955 they published a book ''The twins on table tennis''. Their father was former amateur

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

Vivian Rowe.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowe, Diane English female table tennis players 1933 births Living people

See also

References