Zoja Rudnova (19 August 1946 - 12 March 2014) was an 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 ...

player from the former

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Table tennis career

From 1964 to 1976 she won several medals in singles, doubles, 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 ev ...

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 men ...

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

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

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 country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

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 20th-century Russian sportswomen

Table tennis career

See also

References