Sally Jenkins: Selected Columns

The MAGA-fication of Sports Continues
Donald Trump’s partnership with the Ultimate Fighting Championship takes his desire to identify with winners to snarling new heights.

Trump’s U.S. is not acting like a hospitable World Cup or Olympics host
Global sports events are supposed to bring the world together. To do that, this country needs to change its current posture. The PGA Tour’s thirst for Saudi money is as sad as LIV Golf’s product 2025. As the Saudis sportswash their way through the world of golf, the PGA Tour could at least make them clean up their mess.

Ban on trans athletes seeks to demonize, not protect
Sorting out trans participation in women’s sports should start with empathy. The latest executive order is presented with cruelty.

Sandra Day O’Connor, cowgirl and intellectual, would not be fenced in
Time after time what came through in O’Connor’s legal opinions, almost like secret-ink handwriting, was that hardy yet empathetic intelligence of the outdoorswoman who could do the work of a man yet hear the wing of a spar hawk.

Why I’m not angry at Lance Armstrong
Maybe I’m not angry at Lance because, though I hoped he was clean, it’s simply not shocking or enraging to learn that he was like all the other cyclists who sought a medical advantage in riding up the faces of mountains. Or because I’ve long believed that what athletes put in their bodies should be a matter of personal conscience, not police actions.

Baseball’s surrender on Pete Rose is a disgrace to the game
Banning someone from baseball’s Hall of Fame is not a sentence to the electric chair, much as the worshipers of the emerald chessboard like to frame it so. It’s not a guillotine. It’s not denial of a second chance in life. It’s just a simple statement that says, “We will not enshrine you.”

Bitter rivals. Beloved friends. Survivors: Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova forged 50-year bond during tennis careers
The shape of the relationship is an hourglass. They first met as teenagers in 1973, became friends and then split apart as each rose to No. 1 in the world at the direct expense of the other. They contested 80 matches – 60 of them finals – riveting for their contrasts in tactics and temperament. After a 15-year rivalry, they somehow reached a perfect equipoise of 18 Grand Slam victories each.