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Angelica Rozeanu

Angelica Rozeanu was a Romanian-born Jewish table tennis player who won the women's world singles title 6 years in a row, from 1950 to 1955, and later lived in Israel.

1921 to 20066 straight women's world titles17 world championship gold medalsCoaching Israeli table tennis

Born: 15 October 1921, Bucharest
Died: 21 February 2006, Haifa
Occupation: table tennis player

Angelica Rozeanu was born in 1921 in Bucharest

Angelica Rozeanu, born Adelstein, was born in Bucharest on 15 October 1921 to a wine merchant. She first played table tennis at age 8, when her brother set up a net at home. At 12 she won the Romanian Cup, and in 1936 she won the Romanian national championship.

Because she was Jewish, she was not allowed to play during World War II. She won her first world title in 1950 and kept it through 1955. In total she won 17 gold medals at the World Championships, and she headed the Romanian Table Tennis Commission from 1950 to 1960.

She moved to Israel in 1960, joined Hapoel Haifa and coached its team. She won the 1961 Maccabiah and the Israeli women's championship in 1961 and 1962. In 1962 she played exhibition matches in South Africa, and the Israeli federation's court condemned her for it but gave no penalty.

At the end of 1964 she was named coach of Israel's men's national team. After Hapoel dismissed her in 1966, she left the sport and worked in computer programming at Elbit. She lived in Haifa, became an honorary citizen of the city in 2001, and died in 2006.