Tom Goldman
Tom Goldman is NPR's sports correspondent. His reports can be heard throughout NPR's news programming, including Morning Edition and All Things Considered, and on NPR.org.
With a beat covering the entire world of professional sports, both in and outside of the United States, Goldman reporting covers the broad spectrum of athletics from the people to the business of athletics.
During his nearly 30 years with NPR, Goldman has covered every major athletic competition including the Super Bowl, the World Series, the NBA Finals, golf and tennis championships, and the Olympic Games.
His pieces are diverse and include both perspective and context. Goldman often explores people's motivations for doing what they do, whether it's solo sailing around the world or pursuing a gold medal. In his reporting, Goldman searches for the stories about the inspirational and relatable amateur and professional athletes.
Goldman contributed to NPR's 2009 Edward R. Murrow award for his coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and to a 2010 Murrow Award for contribution to a series on high school football, "Friday Night Lives." Earlier in his career, Goldman's piece about Native American basketball players earned a 2004 Dick Schaap Excellence in Sports Journalism Award from the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern University and a 2004 Unity Award from the Radio-Television News Directors Association.
In January 1990, Goldman came to NPR to work as an associate producer for sports with Morning Edition. For the next seven years he reported, edited, and produced stories and programs. In June 1997, he became NPR's first full-time sports correspondent.
For five years before NPR, Goldman worked as a news reporter and then news director in local public radio. In 1984, he spent a year living on an Israeli kibbutz. Two years prior he took his first professional job in radio in Anchorage, Alaska, at the Alaska Public Radio Network.
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After New York Giants kicker Josh Brown was arrested for assaulting his wife in 2015, the NFL investigated and suspended him — for one game. But newly released documents show a history of abuse. -
On Sunday, a legendary voice in baseball will be retiring. And when he does, Vin Scully, who has done the play-by-play for Dodgers games for 67 years, will leave behind several generations of fans.
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After winning gold at the 1968 Olympics, Smith raised his fist in protest and made history. But ask him about the race, and he'll ask you a question in turn: Why did his winning time seem to change?
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American men are the defending champion in rugby — a sport that's coming back after being dropped following the 1924 Games. The U.S. women are considered contenders in the fast seven-on-seven game. -
A shorter, faster version of the sport is making its Olympic debut 92 years after rugby was last in the Olympics. And women's rugby is making its first appearance ever.
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Russians have been banned in a host of sports at the Summer Games, with track and field, rowing and weightlifting hit the hardest. -
The Russian scandal is a hot topic at the U.S. track and field Olympic Trials. Some feel individual Russian athletes should be allowed to compete if they're clean, others support a blanket ban. -
Michael Phelps got a DUI, some bad press and time in rehab since the 2012 Olympics. And that helps explain why he decided to come out of retirement and compete in his fifth Summer Games. -
At trials in Omaha, Neb., Phelps earned a trip to his fifth Olympics. Katie Ledecky, Leah Smith, Townley Haas and Kelsi Worrell are some of the younger competitors who will be joining him in Rio. -
Everyone knows about the multimillion-dollar salaries and celebrity status of NBA players. But in the shadows of the NBA, men toil in the relative obscurity of the D-League to keep their dream alive.
