Tokyo Olympics: ‘voice of table tennis’ Adam Bobrow brings the splash, colour and pizazz to spice up the Games
- The American, who is the official commentator for International Table Tennis Federation, travels the world covering events and competitions
- ‘It’s like wizards battling in magical, physics-defying crazy athleticism,’ says Bobrow
Those who tuned in also got to witness the rise of one of the sport’s newest stars – commentator Adam Bobrow.
The American, who has been the official commentator for the International Table Tennis Federation since 2014, explained one of his off-the-cuff sounding catchy one-liners he dropped during the match between the two heavyweights: “a cut above the dotted line”.
“I was at Costco and I got a pack of organic strawberries for making a smoothie, and the package said, ‘cut above the dotted line’, and I thought, ‘that’s how I would describe Ma Long and Fan Zhendong.’”
Bobrow’s father got him into the sport growing up as they set up a table in the driveway, first picking up a paddle at the age of seven. At 14, he got a high-end paddle after saving up some allowance money, and the spark of table tennis was ignited after Bobrow’s father showed him how to spin a ball.
“That got me really excited and it sort of took the lid off the possibilities. There was no ceiling any more. So for my next birthday I got a proper professional racket which was about US$100, which is still on the low end for a professional racket.”