Stephen A Smith Went on Bill Maher’s Show to Talk Transgender Athletes in Women’s Sports and His Liberal Audience Did Something Nobody Expected

April 3, 2026 Cat2, Politics
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The IOC just banned biological males from women's Olympic sports.

ESPN's loudest voice showed up on Bill Maher's liberal HBO stage to respond.

What Stephen A. Smith said next stopped the entire audience cold – and Democrats should be very worried about what it means.

Stephen A Smith on Lia Thomas: From 554th to No. 1 After Switching to Women's Sports

"Biological men should not be competing against biological girls in sports, period."

Stephen A. Smith didn't whisper it.

He said it to a roomful of Bill Maher's liberal Hollywood audience on March 27 – and they applauded.

That's not a conservative audience.

That's the enemy base agreeing with Trump's position on women's sports.

Smith didn't stop there.

He pointed directly at Lia Thomas – the male swimmer who ranked 554th nationally in the 200-yard freestyle while competing against men, then switched to the women's category and climbed to No. 1.

"Lia Thomas, for example, was a male, and he was ranked over 400th in the world," Smith said. "And then he became a she. And No. 1. Well… does it really take an Einstein to realize that there's something wrong with that picture?"

It doesn't.

And most Americans – regardless of party – already know the answer.

When Maher pressed Smith on whether the transgender athlete issue would become a liability for Democrats in the primaries, Smith didn't hesitate.

"That's their own damn problem," he fired back.

How Trump's Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports Order Became Olympic Policy

This didn't happen in a vacuum.

Trump signed the "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports" executive order in February 2025, directing federal agencies to interpret Title IX based on biological sex.

The NCAA complied within months.

The IOC followed on March 26, announcing that eligibility for any female category event is now limited to biological females – determined by a one-time SRY gene screening.

IOC President Kirsty Coventry said the science was unambiguous: male chromosomes give performance advantages in sports that rely on strength, power, and endurance that a working group of experts concluded are retained after transition.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt didn't miss the moment: "President Trump's Executive Order protecting women's sports made this happen!"

The IOC's own research put hard numbers on what coaches and athletes have been saying for years.

The male performance advantage over biological women runs 10–12% in most running and swimming events, at least 20% in throwing and jumping, and can exceed 100% in explosive power events.

That's not ideology. That's physiology. And now it's Olympic policy.

Why This Moment Is Bigger Than Sports

Democrats have staked enormous political capital on the position that biological sex shouldn't determine sports eligibility.

They've called anyone who disagreed a bigot.

Now the IOC has agreed with Trump. The NCAA has agreed with Trump. And Stephen A. Smith just agreed with Trump – on Bill Maher's show – to applause from a liberal audience.

Smith framed it the way female athletes have been framing it for years.

"That's not just about LGBTQ rights," he said during a Super Bowl Radio Row interview in 2025. "That's about preying on the rights of females out there everywhere who were born female, and they're at a decided disadvantage."

AOC called women's sports protections "a racist dog whistle" in 2021.

Chuck Schumer said banning biological males from female competition was "an attack on our most vulnerable."

They bet everything on the idea that common sense was bigotry.

The IOC just told them they were wrong.

Stephen A. Smith just told their own audience they were wrong.

And that audience applauded.

The only people who haven't figured it out yet are Schumer, AOC, and the Democrats still pretending this is a winning hill to die on.

Sources:

  • "Stephen A. Smith Says No Excuse for Biological Men Competing in Women's Sports," Fox News, March 29, 2026.
  • "Stephen A. Smith Tells Bill Maher What He Really Thinks About Biological Men Competing Against Women," Daily Caller, March 29, 2026.
  • "International Olympic Committee Announces New Policy on the Protection of the Female (Women's) Category in Olympic Sport," Olympics.com, March 26, 2026.
  • "Transgender Women Banned from Olympics by New IOC Policy," ESPN, March 26, 2026.
  • "White House Applauds Ban on Transgender Women in Women's Olympic Events," Washington Post, March 26, 2026.
  • "A Look at the Numbers and Times: No Denying the Advantages of Lia Thomas," Swimming World Magazine, April 8, 2022.