Magda Gál (married name Házi) (1907 – 1990), was a Hungarian international table tennis player.[1]

Magda Gál
Personal information
Nationality Hungary  United States
Born1907
Died1990(1990-00-00) (aged 82–83)
Medal record
Representing  Hungary
World Table Tennis Championships
Bronze medal – third place1929Women's singles
Bronze medal – third place1929Women's doubles
Silver medal – second place1929Mixed doubles
Bronze medal – third place1930Mixed doubles
Silver medal – second place1930Women's doubles
Bronze medal – third place1931Mixed doubles
Silver medal – second place1931Women's doubles
Bronze medal – third place1931Women's singles
Bronze medal – third place1932Mixed doubles
Bronze medal – third place1932Women's doubles
Bronze medal – third place1932Women's singles
Bronze medal – third place1933Women's singles
Silver medal – second place1933Women's doubles
Silver medal – second place1933Mixed doubles
Bronze medal – third place1934Women's singles
Bronze medal – third place1934Women's doubles
Silver medal – second place1934Women's team
Silver medal – second place1935Women's team
Silver medal – second place1935Women's singles
Bronze medal – third place1936Women's doubles

Table tennis career edit

She was a prolific World Table Tennis Championships medal winner and secured eight silver medals and twelve bronze medals from the 1929 World Table Tennis Championships to the 1936 World Table Tennis Championships.[2]

Gál came short of a gold medal 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 and Anna Sipos, and secondly the war effectively ended her chances to compete at world level. She did however continue to play in the United States.[3] She also won two English Open titles.

Personal life edit

Gál was born into a banking family in 1907, and was the only woman competitor on the table tennis team at the University of Szeged.[4]

She married her fellow international player Tibor Házi in 1937, and in 1939, they fled to the United States to avoid capture by Nazi Germany because of their Jewish origins, and they settled in Bethesda, Maryland. She died in 1990 aged 83 and Házi died in 1999.[4]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ "Profile". Table Tennis Guide.
  2. ^ "Table Tennis World Championship medal winners". Sports123.
  3. ^ "Tibor Hazi Hoffman and Magda Gal". YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.
  4. ^ a b "Hall of Fame". Team USA. Archived from the original on April 5, 2015.