ESPN sportscaster and College GameDay analyst Kirk Herbstreit made it clear he thinks that men do not “belong in women’s sports,” calling the idea “ridiculous.”
In a post on X on Tuesday that’s since gone viral, a person posed a question to Herbstreit that read, “Do men belong in women’s sports? Time for influential men in sports media to stand up, Kirk,” OutKick reported.
The broadcaster saw the post and replied, retweeting the person’s question and answered, “Of course not. Ridiculous question.”
His comments were met with praise by others who agreed that it’s wrong for men to compete against women in female sports, including former ESPN host Sage Steele, who left the network in 2023.
Of course not. Ridiculous question https://t.co/SpwZ07zewv
— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) August 6, 2024
Steele shared Herbstreit’s post and added an “applause” emoji.
“Thank You for speaking up Kirk Herbstreit,” another person wrote.
While a third person wrote, “Thank you, Kirk.We need to be more outspoken about this nonsense, it’s maddening.”
His response was similar to ESPN host Pat McAfee who recently spoke out about men competing against women in a women’s competition, calling it “unfair,” the outlet noted.
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It was during a conversation about two boxers at the Olympics — Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan — both of whom previously failed gender eligibility tests by the International Boxing Association (IBA) but have been allowed by the IOC (International Olympics Committee) to compete against biological women in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
During a press conference on Monday, the IBA announced the findings from past gender chromosome tests they did of both Khelif and Lin Yu‑ting, revealing that “the blood results look and say — the laboratories — that this boxer is male,” as previously reported.
IBA CEO Chris Roberts said during the presser that test results for the fighters “demonstrated the chromosomes we refer to in competition rules that make both boxers ineligible.”
Roberts further explained that Khelif and Yu-ting were informed that they tested for XY chromosomes and were given the opportunity to appeal the findings to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The IBA, he said, offered to pay the majority of the appeal; Yu-ting did not appeal, and Khelif appealed initially, but then withdrew the appeal.
Amanda Prestigiacomo contributed to this piece.
