Bohdan Tomaszewski, veteran Polish sports commentator, has died in Warsaw aged 93.
Tomaszewski worked for Polish Radio for several decades, covering twelve Olympic Games – both summer and winter – from Melbourne in 1956 to Moscow in 1980, achieving enormous popularity.
The broadcaster made his debut on the air in 1947 covering the Poland-England tennis match in the Davis Cup. Following the imposition of martial law in December 1981 he refused to work for the official media and did not return to Polish Radio until the collapse of communism in 1989.
Having retired from Polish Radio, he continued to work as a freelancer into his nineties. Two years ago he did a live commentary of the Wimbledon tournament for one of the commercial television stations.
Tennis was, next to athletics, Bohdan Tomaszewski’s favourite discipline. In his late teens, he was a promising tennis player, and was vice-champion in the national Under-18 championships. In the 1970s he launched the annual Tomaszewski Cup tennis tournament for teenagers, whose past winners include such stars as Agnieszka Radwańska.
During World War Two, Bohdan Tomaszewski was a member of the Home Army. He was the recipient of numerous distinctions, including the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Poland Reborn and Polish Radio’s ‘Golden Microphone’. He also had several books and film scripts to his credit.
