Sally Jenkins

Sally Jenkins (born October 22, 1960) is an American sports columnist and feature writer for The Washington Post. She was previously a senior writer for Sports Illustrated. She has been named the nation's top sports columnist by the AP sports editors four times and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2019. She is the author of a dozen books and received the National Press Foundation's chairman citation in 2017.

Jenkins was born in Fort Worth, Texas, She is the daughter of Hall of Fame sportswriter Dan Jenkins, who also once wrote for Sports Illustrated.

She is a graduate of Stanford University with a degree in English literature.

Jenkins is the author of twelve books, four of which were New York Times bestsellers, including the number 1 bestseller Sum It Up: 1098 Victories, A Couple of Irrelevant Losses and A Life In Perspective, written with legendary basketball coach Pat Summitt, and It's Not About the Bike written with bicycle racer Lance Armstrong.

Her work has been featured in Smithsonian Magazine, GQ and Sports Illustrated, and she has been a correspondent on CNBC as well as on NPR's All Things Considered.

Joe Paterno interview and column

In January 2012, Jenkins secured an interview with Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) football coach Joe Paterno shortly before his death. During the interview, she asked his views on the Jerry Sandusky sexual molestation allegations. Her report of this interview was published 13 January 2012. In it she drew no firm conclusions about Paterno's culpability, but simply reported his words, and those of his lawyer.On 12 July 2012, in a Washington Post follow-up column, after the release of Freeh 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."

Lance Armstrong

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 seven Tour de France titles.In a column titled, "Why I’m not angry at Lance Armstrong", Jenkins wrote: "And I’m confused as to why using cortisone 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."

Jenkins resides in Sag Harbor, New York.

In 2005 Jenkins became the first woman inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame.

It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award in 2000. It was also number one on the New York Times Best Seller list. This book was also awarded the Christopher Award for Adult Books in 2001. It also appeared in the Texas Tayshas Reading List from 2001 to 2002.

In 2001, 2003, 2010 and 2011 she won the Associated Press’s Sports Columnist of the Year Award.

In 2001, 2008 and 2011 she was named Sports Columnist of the Year by the Society of Professional Journalists.

• Jenkins, Sally (1996). Men Will Be Boys: The Modern Woman Explains Football and Other Amusing Male Rituals. Doubleday]. ISBN 0-385-48218-3.
• Summit, Pat; Sally Jenkins (1998). Reach for the Summit: The Definite Dozen System for Succeeding at Whatever You Do. Broadway Books. ISBN 0-7679-0229-7.
• Smith, Dean; John Kilgo; Sally Jenkins (1999). A Coach's Life: My Forty Years in College Basketball. Random House. ISBN 0-375-50270-X.
• Armstrong, Lance; Sally Jenkins (2000). It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life. G. P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 0-399-14611-3.
• Runyan, Marla; Sally Jenkins (2001). No Finish Line. G. P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 0-399-14803-5.
• Armstrong, Lance; Sally Jenkins (2004). Every Second Counts. Broadway Books. ISBN 0-7679-1448-1.
• Jenkins, Sally; Funny Cide Team (2004). Funny Cide: How a Horse, a Trainer, a Jockey, and a Bunch of High School Buddies Took on the Sheiks and Blue Bloods—and Won. G. P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 0-399-15179-6.
• Jenkins, Sally (2007). The Real All Americans: The Team That Changed a Game, a People, a Nation. Random House. ISBN 0-7393-2719-4.
• Jenkins, Sally; John Stauffer (2009). The State of Jones. Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-52593-1.