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. [Copyright 2025 NPR]
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This weekend features three top-10 matchups, the most ever for an opening weekend in college football history. And Arch Manning, the most hyped player of a generation, will start for the first time. -
Between replay review, automated balls and strikes and viral lowlights on social media, the work of baseball umpires has been transformed by technology. But none of that has deterred aspiring umpires. -
The order aims to ban "pay-for-play" NIL deals, mandates scholarships for women's and Olympic sports and threatens to withhold funds from schools who don't comply. But its legality is in question. -
The league is set to rake in hundreds of millions of dollars from expansion fees and a new media rights deal. And the players' union is pushing for a new contract to change a legacy of low pay. -
Anisimova was a teenage tennis prodigy. But by 2023, tournaments had become "unbearable" for her mental health, and she stepped away. Now, she is a win away from her first Grand Slam title. -
The 21-year-old Real Salt Lake midfielder, with his bleached hair and dozens of tattoos, stands out on the soccer field. But it's his attitude that has won praise from his coach, teammates and fans. -
Led by point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the league's Most Valuable Player, the Thunder outlasted the Indiana Pacers for the team's first title since moving to Oklahoma in 2008. -
A handful of dreadful losses — plus some drama between the team's biggest star and its new head coach — has the USMNT looking for a badly-needed rebound in this summer's Gold Cup tournament. -
The 21-year-old American star battled back over three sets to defeat the world's top-ranked player, Aryna Sabalenka. Gauff is the first American to win at Roland-Garros since Serena Williams in 2015. -
The settlement in House v. NCAA brings an end to the NCAA's long-standing tradition of amateurism. Starting this fall, schools will be able to pay players directly up to a salary cap of $20.5 million.
