Zoja Rudnova (19 August 1946 - 12 March 2014) was an 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 from the former

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

Table tennis career

From 1964 to 1976 she won several medals in singles, doubles, and team events in the Table Tennis European Championships 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 me ...

. She was twice European champion in women singles, three time European champion with the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nati ...

team, once in women doubles and four times in mixed doubles. She was the first woman ever to become an absolute European champion in 1970 winning all four possible gold medals (singles, team, doubles, mixed doubles) - great feat which has only been repeated once since. She was a member of

women team who won gold medal at 1969 World Championships which was the only time

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

ever won gold medal as a team (she also has team silver medal from 1967 Worlds). She also has one of only two non-team world championship gold medals in table tennis ever won by

- in doubles in 1969 with Svetlana Grinberg. She also won four

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. Zoja Rudnova died on 12 March 2014, at the age of 67.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rudnova Soviet table tennis players Russian female table tennis players 1946 births 2014 deaths

Table tennis career

See also

References