Longtime Olympic television coverage host Bob Costas will be stepping down from his post, with Mike Tirico taking over as the main face of NBC Olympic coverage beginning in 2018.
Costas has hosted NBC’s Olympic broadcasts since way back in 1992, comprising 11 different Olympic Games: Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, Salt Lake City 2002, Athens 2004, Torino 2006, Beijing 2008, Vancouver 2010, London 2012, Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016. That also means Costas is one of a few Olympic fixtures to actually pre-date Michael Phelps, who first competed at the 2000 Olympics and announced his retirement after the Rio 2016 Games.
Sportscaster Tirico will take over the hosting duties, following in the footsteps of someone he says he looked up to early in his life and career. Tirico was also the first-ever recipient of a scholarship named after Costas at Syracuse University. Per The Today Show:
“Someone who I grew up idolizing,” Tirico said about Costas on NBC’s TODAY morning show Thursday. “I went to Syracuse in large part for college because Bob did. I received a Bob Costas scholarship 30 years ago.”
Costas praised Tirico’s abilities to carry on his Olympic hosting legacy:
“I’m going to be like the rest of the country, watching Mike Tirico, who will be an able successor in Korea for the Winter Olympics beginning a year from today,” Costas said on TODAY.
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