Becky Sullivan
Becky Sullivan is NPR’s sports correspondent. She covers professional leagues, college athletics and youth sports, with stories about the people who play them and the intersections of sports with science, business and the law.
She has reported and produced for NPR since 2011. Before becoming the network’s sports correspondent, she traveled widely around the U.S. and the world to cover conflict, natural disasters, disease, politics and protests.
In 2020, she flew to Tehran to help cover the assassination of Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani, work that helped make NPR a Pulitzer finalist that year. Her work covering the killing of Breonna Taylor by Louisville police in 2020 won an Edward R. Murrow Award for Hard News.
She has traveled repeatedly to Israel and the Palestinian territories to cover the conflict between Israel and Hamas, and she was part of NPR’s team on the ground in Ukraine after Russia invaded in 2022. Sullivan has spoken to U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan on the anniversary of Sept. 11, reported from a military parade in Pyongyang for coverage of the regime of Kim Jong-Un, visited hospitals and pregnancy clinics in Colombia to cover the outbreak of Zika and traveled around Haiti to report on the aftermath of natural disasters.
Born and raised in Kansas City and a graduate of the University of Kansas, Sullivan has often brought coverage of the Midwest and Great Plains region to NPR. In the summer of 2023, she rode her bicycle more than 4,000 miles from Washington, D.C., to the Oregon coast.
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A new study found a high proportion of NFL players develop brain trauma, but it is unclear what this means for youth football players.
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A new study finds that 1 in 4 NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021 had CTE, the degenerative brain disease. Researchers have long known about the link between repeated head hits and CTE.
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The 1994 World Cup is universally credited with sparking a boom of interest in soccer in the U.S., from youth leagues to televised games to the formation of MLS. The league and its teams say 2026 will be another boom -- the only question is, how to harness it?
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Argentina is returning to the World Cup final after a thrilling come-from-behind victory against England. The English have not reached the final in 60 years. Argentina is aiming to repeat as champion.
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The expanded World Cup allowed FIFA to introduce a new seeding system that placed the world's top teams in opposite corners of the knockout bracket. Now, the semifinals are both heavyweight matchups. -
Argentina was taken to the brink in its first two knockout games. In Saturday's quarterfinal against Switzerland, the Albiceleste survived again to advance to the semis, where they will face England. -
The team was in the eye of a storm over a controversial phone call from President Trump to FIFA's head about a red card on a U.S. striker. But even with the U.S. at full strength, Belgium easily won. -
The U.S. striker Folarin Balogun is expected to start against Belgium in a Round of 16 match after a surprise decision by FIFA to allow him to play despite receiving a red card last week. -
When American striker Folarin Balogun received a red card in Wednesday's World Cup match against Bosnia-Herzegovina, it had huge repercussions for Monday's game against Belgium.
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The U.S. beat Bosnia-Herzegovina 2-0 in a World Cup knockout round Wednesday. The U.S. now advances to the Round of 16, where they will face Belgium on July 6.
