Leah Thall Neuberger was ranked the third table tennis player in the world in 1951. The United States’ greatest women's table tennis player, of whom the New York Times once wrote “Her paddle is her passport,” Thall Neuberger won the World Mixed Doubles Championship in 1956 with teenager Erwin Klein.
In 1980, she was elected a charter member of the Table Tennis Hall of Fame.
Leah captured 29 National titles between 1949 and 1974—9 Singles, 12 Doubles, 8 Mixed Doubles. She also won 41 Canadian championships, including 11 Singles titles.
In 1971, she accompanied the Canadian table tennis team on its historic Ping-Pong Diplomacy Tour to the People’s Republic of China. The only American in the Canadian entourage and the first U.S. citizen in decades to visit China and speak face to face with Chinese premier Chou En-lai, her chat sparked a series of events that led to the ending of the U.S.-China Cold War.
