Bob Costas is no stranger to speaking out on the intersection of sports and politics, and he made his view clear on the recent transgender athlete ban by the International Olympic Committee.
On March 26, the Olympics announced a new policy entitled “Policy on the Protection of the Female (Women’s) Category in Olympic Sport and Guiding Considerations for International Federations and Sports Governing Bodies.” It effectively limits any female category event at the Olympics to “biological females.”
The issue of transgender sports has been one of the most politically fraught and polarizing in recent years, especially when it comes to Olympic sports. It has been a wedge issue hyped by conservative influencers like Riley Gaines even as human rights experts weigh the impacts of the out-of-proportion focus and resulting discrimination. And it reached a fever pitch during the 2024 Olympics in the conversation surrounding Algerian boxer Imane Khelif.
In an appearance on CNN with Elex Michaelson, the longtime Olympics primetime host attempted to provide a calm and measured response to the news. While stating his support for transgender individuals and standing against discrimination, Costas called the ban “common sense” when it comes to athletic participation.
NEWS: Bob Costas supports the IOC’s decision to ban trans athletes from women’s sports at the Olympics.
“Common sense is not transphobic…this policy is common sense.”
The host of 12 Olympic games told @CNNTheStoryIs that trans people should be treated with “dignity and… pic.twitter.com/ezou511QgL
— Elex Michaelson (@Elex_Michaelson) March 27, 2026
“There are people who use this issue cynically for political purposes and they’re demonizing people who happen to be trans who should be treated with respect and dignity and understanding, “Costas said. “However, common sense is not transphobic. There’s a reason why the high school champions don’t compete with the college champions. There is a reason why no trans man who was once a woman and has become a man has ever competed successfully with men in the Olympics.”
Costas then went on to give an example of Caitlin Clark playing in the NBA and “the last guy on the bench of an NBA team” going to the WNBA to average 40 points per game. He then cited Lia Thomas specifically, claiming that she went from a low-ranked men’s competitor to a national champion swimming against women.
“There is a reason why there is men’s and women’s sports and why Title IX was one of the truly progressive pieces of legislation in the best sense of the word progressive under the Nixon administration. It changed everything. I had a sister who never played a single organized sport. One generation later, two children of my own, my daughter played just about as many organized sports as my son. That’s a great thing. It doesn’t make any sense to have a swimmer who was the 472nd ranked swimmer when he was a man at Penn either winning or coming close to winning against women a year and a half after transitioning. If that’s what the person wants to do, that person should be treated with dignity and respect. But there ought to be common sense and common sense is not transphobic,” Costas added.
Bob Costas has been brought back into the NBC fold as the host of Sunday Night Baseball. Although he did make a special appearance for the NBA on NBC as a play-by-play man for their throwback broadcast, it’s unknown at this time whether he will have any role on Olympic coverage when the Summer Games come to Los Angeles in 2028.
