Renowned sportscaster Bob Costas has expressed his support for the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) recent policy changes designed to safeguard women’s sports.
The IOC unveiled these new regulations earlier this week, which are set to take effect during the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
Under the new guidelines, eligibility for participation in female category events at the Olympics—spanning both individual and team sports—will now be restricted to biological females.
The policy revision has ignited controversy within the sporting community, with critics such as double Olympic gold medallist Caster Semenya dismissing the changes as ‘nonsense.’
Countering the backlash, Costas, who has been a prominent voice for the Olympics in the United States for many years, defended the IOC’s decision.
During a CNN interview, the 74-year-old sportscaster described the revised policy as a matter of ‘common sense,’ insisting that it was a necessary step.
Legendary sportscaster Bob Costas welcomed the IOC’s new transgender ban
‘Common sense is not transphobic,’ he said. ‘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.
‘If Caitlin Clark could play in the NBA, everybody would applaud it – that would be an incredible thing. But if the last guy on the bench of an NBA team went to the WNBA and started averaging 40 points, everyone would know that is BS.’
Costas acknowledged that while some are using the issue for ‘political purposes’ and ‘demonizing’ transgender athletes, he insisted that the IOC was not among them.
‘There is a reason why there are 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.
‘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 was the prime-time host of 12 Olympic Games for NBC Sports from 1988 until 2016.
The IOC’s policy bars transgender athletes from women’s events. The rules will also apply to almost all athletes with a Disorder of Sex Development (DSD). DSD is a term for a group of rare conditions, in which a person’s hormones, genes and reproductive organs may be a mix of male and female characteristics.
Olympics chief Kirsty Coventry said the new rules would help ensure the safety of female stars
Caster Semenya has hit out at new IOC rules which block transgender and most DSD athletes from women’s events
Under the rules, athletes with DSD must prove that they ‘do not benefit from the anabolic and/or performance-enhancing effects of testosterone’.
An exception has been made for DSD athletes with a rare condition called complete androgen insensitivity syndrome (CAIS), which means they have not gone through male puberty.
Pressure had grown on the IOC following the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, when boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting won gold medals in women’s boxing events – despite claims that they had failed gender eligibility tests with the International Boxing Association (IBA).
The issue had become a major topic during the IOC presidential elections, with eventual winner Kirsty Coventry among those to have pledged to introduce rules to protect the women’s category – leading to her setting up a review last year.
A 10-page IOC document outlined the policy and its research behind it that being born male gives physical advantages that are retained.
‘Males experience three significant testosterone peaks: in utero, in mini-puberty of infancy and beginning in adolescent puberty through adulthood,’ the document said.
It added this gives males ‘individual sex-based performance advantages in sports and events that rely on strength, power and/or endurance.’
All athletes wishing to take part in women’s events must take sex tests, including boxer Imane Khelif, who was at the centre of a gender row during the Paris 2024 Olympics
Coventry said when announcing the rules: ‘As a former athlete, I passionately believe in the rights of all Olympians to take part in fair competition. The policy that we have announced is based on science and has been led by medical experts.
‘At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat. So, it is absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category. In addition, in some sports it would simply not be safe.
‘Every athlete must be treated with dignity and respect, and athletes will need to be screened only once in their lifetime. There must be clear education around the process and counselling available, alongside expert medical advice.’
Eligibility will be determined on the basis of a one‑time SRY gene screening. The screening for an SRY gene, which can be via a cheek swab or blood test, has already been required by some governing bodies including World Athletics and World Boxing.
