Mária Mednyánszky (7 April 1901

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

– 22 December 1978 also Budapest) was a Hungarian international

table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

star.

Table tennis career

She became the first official women's world champion winning the women's singles event

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 b ...

in the first edition of 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 men ...

, held in 1926 at

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. She went on to win the title for five successive years and won a further 18 world titles. Only Angelica Rozeanu holds more women's singles titles than her. She won seven doubles titles including six consecutive wins with Anna Sipos. She also won three

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.

Awards

She was awarded the Golden Order of the Hungarian People's Republic in 1976, Hungary's highest sporting honour.

References

Maria Mednyanszky
ITTF Hall of Fame. Accessed September 2007
Maria Mednyanszky
at I GUINNESS DEL TENNISTAVOLO (Italian) Accessed Sept 2007 Hungarian female table tennis players 1901 births 1978 deaths Table tennis players from Budapest 20th-century Hungarian sportswomen {{Hungary-tabletennis-bio-stub

Table tennis career

Awards

See also

References