Mária Mednyánszky

Mária Mednyánszky (7 April 1901 Budapest – 22 December 1978 also Budapest) was a Hungarian international table tennis star.

Table tennis career
She became the first official women's world champion winning the women's singles event gold medal in the first edition of the World Table Tennis Championships, held in 1926 at London. 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 titles.

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