Sally Jenkins | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1960-10-11)October 11, 1960 (age 65) Fort Worth, Texas, U.S. |
| Occupation | author, sports columnist, and feature writer |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Stanford University (BA)[1] |
| Subject | sports |
| Notable awards | |
| Relatives | Dan Jenkins (father) |
Sally Jenkins (born October 11, 1960) is an American sports columnist and feature writer forThe Washington Post, and author. She was previously a senior writer forSports Illustrated. She has won theAP Sports Columnist of the Year Award five times, received theNational Press Foundation 2017 chairman citation, and was a finalist for the2020 Pulitzer Prize. She is the author of a dozen books. Jenkins is noted for her writing onPat Summitt,Joe Paterno,Lance Armstrong, and theUnited States Center for SafeSport.
Jenkins was born inFort Worth, Texas,[2] She is the daughter of Hall of Fame sportswriterDan Jenkins, who also once wrote forSports Illustrated.[3] She is a 1982 graduate ofStanford University, with a degree in English literature.[1]
Jenkins is a sports columnist and feature writer forThe Washington Post. She was previously a senior writer forSports Illustrated. She was a finalist for the2020 Pulitzer Prize. Jenkins is the author of twelve books, four of which wereNew York Times bestsellers, including the number 1 bestsellerSum It Up: 1098 Victories, A Couple of Irrelevant Losses and A Life In Perspective, written with legendary basketball coachPat Summitt, andIt's Not About the Bike written with bicycle racerLance Armstrong. Her work has been featured inSmithsonian Magazine,GQ, andSports Illustrated, and Jenkins has been a correspondent onCNBC, as well as onNPR'sAll Things Considered.[4][5]
In January 2012, Jenkins secured an interview withPennsylvania State University (Penn State) football coachJoe Paterno shortly before his death. During the interview, she asked him his views on theJerry Sanduskysexual molestation allegations. Her report of the interview was published January 13, 2012. In it she drew no firm conclusions about Paterno's culpability, but simply reported his words, and those of his lawyer.[6]
On July 12, 2012, in aWashington Post follow-up column, after the release of theFreeh Report, she wrote: "Joe Paterno was a liar, there's no doubt about that now ... Paterno fell prey to the single most corrosive sin in sports: the belief that winning on the field makes you better and more important than other people."[7]
Jenkins co-wrote two best-selling autobiographies with cyclist Lance Armstrong, and defended Armstrong even after he admitted to doping and taking banned performance-enhancing substances while vehemently lying that he had done so, and was stripped of his sevenTour de France titles.[8] In a column titled, "Why I’m not angry at Lance Armstrong", Jenkins wrote: "And I’m confused as to why usingcortisone as an anti-inflammatory in a 2,000-mile race is cheating, and I wonder why putting your own blood back into your body is the crime of the century."[9]
In October 2022, Jenkins wrote a column in theWashington Post about theUnited States Center for SafeSport. She called SafeSport “a false front … little more than another coverup operation, a litigation-avoidance ploy and bottomless pit into which to dump complaints and disguise inaction.”[10] In conclusion, she wrote that SafeSport is "abuser-friendly," and a sham.[10]
It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life won theWilliam Hill Sports Book of the Year award in 2000.[11] It was also number one on theNew York Times Best Seller list.[12] The book was also awarded theChristopher Award for Adult Books in 2001.[13] It also appeared in the Texas Tayshas Reading List from 2001 to 2002.[14]
In 2001, 2003, 2010, 2011, and 2021 she won theAssociated Press’s Sports Columnist of the Year Award.[15] In 2001, 2008, and 2011 she was named Sports Columnist of the Year by theSociety of Professional Journalists.[16][4] She received theNational Press Foundation's chairman citation in 2017.[17]
In 2005 Jenkins became the first woman inducted into theNational Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame.[18] She was inducted into theWashington DC Sports Hall of Fame in 2021.[19] She was named the 2021Red Smith Award winner.[20]
Jenkins resides in New York, New York.[17] She is in a relationship with Nicole Bengiveno.[21]
