Stephanie Kuzydym is a sports enterprise and investigative reporter for the Louisville Courier Journal, which is part of the USA TODAY Network. For the last decade, Kuzydym’s reporting largely focused on the health and safety of athletes. In “Safer Sidelines,” Kuzydym’s project for the 2022 Data Fellowship, she uncovered the many ways high schools, athletic associations and lawmakers have failed to prepare for the worst-case scenario — sudden death in sports. In “Silence & Secrets,” a four-part investigation that found at least 80 cases of sexual misconduct by Kentucky’s coaches against athletes or students in the last 15 years. The project prompted two new laws, including the first in  Kentucky General Assembly history to focus on sexual abuse in athletics. Both series were named the top newspaper work of the year by the American Legion in 2023 and 2024. Kuzydym’s work received numerous other national awards, including the Kentucky Athletic Trainers Society’s’ Sports Medicine Person of the Year, the National Athletic Trainers Association’s President’s Service Award and the Korey Stringer Institute’s Lifesaving Education Award. She was named the 2025 Journalist of the Year for Gannett, the largest newspaper publisher in the country.
 

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