Bob Costas says IOC transgender policy ban is ‘common sense’ not transphobic

Legendary sportscaster Bob Costas praised the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) policy change this week banning transgender athletes from competing in girls’s sports activities, saying, “Common sense is not transphobic.”

Costas, the longtime voice of the Olympics, addressed the groundbreaking policy change throughout an look on CNN this week. Costas mentioned that whereas some use the difficulty “for political purposes,” the IOC policy does not fall below that umbrella.

“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.

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“If Caitlin Clark might play within the NBA, everybody would applaud it — that may be an unimaginable factor. But if the final man on the bench of an NBA staff went to the WNBA and began averaging 40 factors, everybody would know that is BS.”

The IOC unveiled the policy Thursday, limiting female competition to biological females. Eligibility will be determined by SRY gene screening, also known as genetic testing.

“Based on scientific proof, the IOC considers that the presence of the SRY gene is fastened all through life and represents extremely correct proof that an athlete has skilled male intercourse growth. Furthermore, the IOC considers that SRY gene screening through saliva, cheek swab or blood pattern is unintrusive in comparison with different potential strategies,” the IOC executive board said in a press release.

The Olympic rings at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) headquarters. (Laurent Gillieron/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

IOC ANNOUNCES NEW POLICY TO ENSURE ONLY FEMALES COMPETE IN WOMEN’S COMPETITIONS

Before the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, track and field, swimming and cycling had adopted policies that effectively prohibited trans athletes who had undergone male puberty from participating in female competition. The new policy ensures that it applies to all sports ahead of the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

Costas said that while he believes some are “demonizing” trans athletes over the issue, the IOC policy addresses fair competition for female athletes.

“There is a purpose why there are males’s and girls’s sports activities and why Title IX was one of many really progressive items of laws in the very best sense of the phrase progressive below the Nixon administration. It modified every little thing.

IOC President Kirsty Coventry speaks to volunteers, forward of the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (Daniele Mascolo/Pool Photo through AP)

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“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.”

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