Bob Costas announced Thursday that he is stepping down from his role as Olympic host and is passing NBC’s coveted Olympic broadcasting torch off to Mike Tirico. In honor of Costas’ record legacy as the face of NBC’s Olympics since 1992, here’s a look back at some of his best moments from the games.
7 best moments from Bob Costas’ Olympic broadcasting career
The longtime face of the NBC broadcast is stepping down from his Olympics role.
1. Costas pushes for human rights coverage in Beijing
Even though he’s a sportscaster, Costas has a long history of pushing for weighty coverage to accompany the event reporting and medal counts. During the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Costas pressed then-President George W. Bush on China’s human rights and America’s foreign policy.
He has also called out the International Olympics Committee when they refused to give Israel a moment of silence in 2012 to show respect for the 1972 Munich massacre. He has criticized non-Olympic sports like football for their dangerous concussions, and he’s made clear his view of this country’s gun control laws.
2. The Pink Eye Incident of Sochi 2014
While Sochi featured possibly rigged figure skating and adorable puppies, Costas really stole the show with his pink eye. Known somewhat widely as “Sochi Patient Zero,” Costas was the first to fall victim to illness abroad.
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The infection eventually got so bad that Matt Lauer had to fill in for him, the first time Costas needed a replacement since 1998. What a trooper.
3. Muhammad Ali lighting the torch in Atlanta 1996
While this isn’t a specifically Bob Costas moment, he cites it as his favorite Olympics moment. As someone who gets a unique insider view of the Olympic arena that most of us don’t, it’s his job to not just report the sports results, but help the audience feel like they’re part of the action. Ali was trembling when he was handed the torch, according to Costas, and to this day he still gets goosebumps thinking about the moment.
4. Costas telling Lindsey Vonn about her new acting gig
Costas has done his fair share of athlete one-on-ones. He doesn’t always get to help their careers, though, until he got the chance to surprise Lindsey Vonn with a role on NBC’s Law & Order. The skier apparently said she “totally would” play a corpse if it meant getting on the show. During a post-win interview, Costas told Vonn she would be playing a jury foreman and even ran lines with her.
5. Taking a shot of Russian vodka like a champ with Mary Carillo
Late-night Costas got a little wild in Sochi. While he struggled valiantly with his infection, Costas decided to celebrate Mary Carillo’s vodka package that had just aired. The two sportscasters clinked and bravely threw back some of Russia’s finest, with little to no cringing.
6. Bob Costas challenges a U.S. Olympic Table Tennis player ... in table tennis
As we all know, Bob Costas is pretty short, and doesn’t seem like he would be suited to succeed at many Olympic sports. Costas claims he was pretty good at ping pong as a kid in this somewhat cringey NBC video, so he was up for a match against an Olympian. And he plays every night to wind down, apparently. In the video he actually holds his own, and ends up winning. Or at least Kanak Jha is nice enough to let him have it.
7. Bob Costas criticizes his own TV network for cutting off The Who
NBC has come under fire during the past few Olympic games for not airing events live or spending too much time on certain coverage. During the 2012 London Olympics, NBC decided their audience would rather watch a sneak preview of their new show Animal Practice instead of the live showing of The Who performing the finale of the Closing Ceremony. Audiences weren’t happy, and neither was Costas, who took to Conan to express his confusion and displeasure with the network’s choice of a monkey in a lab coat over Roger Daltrey.
