Elke Schall,(born 19 July 1973 in

Speyer Speyer (, older spelling ; ; ), historically known in English as Spires, is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate in the western part of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located on the left bank of the r ...

) is a professional

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 ...

player from

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. She has an offensive, looping style. She competed at five consecutive

Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...

from 1992 to 2008. Her doubles partner at the first four Olympics was

Nicole Struse Nicole Struse (born 31 May 1971 in Haan, North Rhine Westphalia) is a German table tennis player, who won several national contests and reached round three with Elke Wosik in the Women's Doubles Competition at the 2004 Summer Olympics. She repre ...

, with whom she won the

European Championships A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

in 1996 and 1998. She was part of the German team that came third in 1997 and sixth in 2004 at the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

and three podium finishes at the European Championships in 2000, 2002, and 2007. She won the German Mixed Doubles championship six times and was Germany Player of the Year in 2003. At the 2009 World Championships, she and

Christian Suss A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words ''Christ'' and ''Chr ...

reached the quarter-finals but were then beaten by the eventual silver medalists. From 2001 to 2008 she was married to fellow Germany professional table tennis player Torben Wosik, whom she met in 1991. She has three brothers and sisters. Her brother Martin is a retired professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player. Her home club is TV Busenbach.

References

Living people German female table tennis players Olympic table tennis players for Germany Table tennis players at the 1992 Summer Olympics Table tennis players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Table tennis players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Table tennis players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Table tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics 1973 births World Table Tennis Championships medalists Sportspeople from Speyer 20th-century German sportswomen 21st-century German sportswomen {{Germany-tabletennis-bio-stub

See also

References