Sally Jenkins

Washington, D.C.

Sports columnist

Education: Stanford University, B.A. English Literature

Sally Jenkins began her second stint at The Washington Post in 2000 after spending the previous decade working as a book author and as a magazine writer. She was named the nation’s top sports columnist in 2001, 2003, 2010, 2011 and 2021 by the Associated Press Sports Editors. She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2020, and in 2022 was named winner by the Associated Press of the Red Smith Award for “major contributions to sports journalism.” Jenkins is the author of 13 books, five of which were New York Times bestsellers, most recently “The Right Call: What Sports Teaches Us About Work
Latest from Sally Jenkins

Call her a late arrival, but Emma Navarro’s U.S. Open run is right on time

The 23-year-old American rolls past Paula Badosa in straight sets to advance to her first U.S. Open semifinal. Her run is the result of a methodical approach.

September 3, 2024

At the U.S. Open, a ‘suffocating’ star is throttling all comers

Jannik Sinner, the world’s top-ranked men’s tennis player, is blitzing U.S. Open opponents with a methodical regularity.

August 31, 2024

Caitlin Clark is shining — and making her skeptics look silly

Caitlin Clark is off to a historic start in the WNBA. Here’s what her doubters missed.

August 27, 2024

If the NFL really is a family, it should take care of a generation in need

The league’s concussion settlement with former players was supposed to evolve as brain science improved. Instead it has remained stubbornly stagnant.

August 21, 2024
The NFL's 2014 settlement with former players does not include many of the diagnostic tests for brain disease that have emerged over the past decade.

The push to strip Jordan Chiles of her Olympic medal smells awfully foul

The court that ruled against Jordan Chiles is a hive of cronies and insiders, established and steered by the IOC and various sports federations as cover.

August 13, 2024

Sports bureaucrats need to keep their paws off athletes’ DNA

The solution to the boxing outcry at the Olympics is to standardize the matter with a simple declaration: Gender testing is wrong, as a matter of science and of ethics.

August 9, 2024
Ioannis Filippatos, former chair of the International Boxing Association medical committee; Chris Roberts, IBA secretary general and CEO; and Gabriele Martelli, IBA coaches committee chairman, appear at a news conference about testing of female boxers, with IBA President Umar Kremlev, on the screen.

Nerds and geeks are taking over the Paris Olympics

Geeks find an obsessive interest that most others don’t share and then pursue it intelligently. That’s why they’re having so much success at these Summer Games.

August 7, 2024
Stephen Nedoroscik, Lee Kiefer and Valarie Allman embraced their scholarly pursuits and won Olympic medals, too. (Charlie Riedel/AP; Kristy Sparow/Getty Images; Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

The Olympics’ ‘Last Supper’ scene demanded our attention

What critics of the Olympics’ Opening Ceremonies are missing.

July 31, 2024

At the sacred home of Olympic surfing, fear and wonder are inseparable

At mighty Teahupo’o, Olympians don’t defeat nature. They survive it.

July 30, 2024

At the Paris Opening Ceremonies, the best of times, or the worst?

A memorable ceremony to open the Olympics found Paris plumbing its haunted past to acknowledge the world’s ever-present dangers.

July 27, 2024
A torchbearer runs atop the Musee d'Orsay during the Opening Ceremonies of the Paris 2024 Olympics on Friday. (Peter Cziborra/Getty Images)