Martha Kelner: Sky News US Correspondent, Career and Reporting Explained

Martha Kelner is a British journalist working as a US Correspondent for Sky News, based in Los Angeles. To UK viewers she is now a familiar face on American stories, from presidential politics and immigration to disasters and court cases on the West Coast. Yet her route to that role is unusual, and it is the part many short online biographies get wrong or skip: Kelner did not start out as a general news correspondent. She built her reputation first as one of Britain’s leading investigative sports reporters, and only later switched to American news reporting.

That switch explains the style she brings to her US reporting. Kelner spent years breaking difficult, document-led stories in sport, where claims had to be checked, sources protected and powerful institutions challenged. When she became a Sky News US correspondent in mid-2021, she carried that approach into a very different beat. This article traces that career, from newspapers to Los Angeles, and fills in the gaps left by many competitor profiles.

Quick Bio

Early Life and Education

Kelner studied Journalism Studies at the University of Sheffield, graduating in 2011. The university’s own profile of her notes that the practical side of the course shaped her early reporting, including being given a patch of the city to cover, building a contacts book and learning to recognise a story. Her father, Martin Kelner, is a well-known sports journalist and broadcaster; her own career began through a graduate trainee scheme.

Starting Out at the Daily Mail

In 2011, Kelner joined the Daily Mail on its graduate trainee scheme, writing for both the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday. She rose to become athletics correspondent across the Mail’s titles in 2015, and played an important role in the paper’s coverage of the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

At the Mail she established herself as an investigations reporter. In 2013, she was the first journalist to uncover the Russian doping scandal, reporting that triggered investigations in the UK and Russia and exposed state-controlled doping and its cover-up. That early scoop set the pattern for her career: complex, sensitive stories requiring patience, careful sourcing and a willingness to challenge sporting authorities. She won the Young Sportswriter Award at the Sports Journalists’ Association (SJA) Awards in 2012.

Chief Sports Reporter at The Guardian

In March 2017, Kelner was appointed Chief Sports Reporter at The Guardian, joining from the Daily Mail. The Guardian’s head of sport, Owen Gibson, said she had already broken some of the biggest stories in sport in recent years and praised her tenacity and expertise.

At The Guardian, she reported exclusives about allegations of a culture of bullying and discrimination within British Cycling, stories that rocked the sport and prompted scrutiny of how athletes were treated. She was highly commended at the Press Awards for that series and named Sport Journalist of the Year at the Press Awards in 2017. Her most famous Guardian scoop, with colleague Sean Ingle, was the revelation of Chris Froome’s failed drug test. It was shortlisted for the 2017 British Journalism Awards and won Scoop of the Year at the SJA Awards.

Moving to Sky News as a Sports Correspondent

In late 2018, Kelner left The Guardian to join Sky News as one of its sports correspondents. The move from print to broadcast was a major change: instead of long newspaper investigations, she was reporting for a general television audience, often live and often from the scene. She reported from Argentina on the death of footballer Emiliano Sala, from France for the Women’s World Cup and from Spain for the Champions League final, while continuing to specialise in doping, corruption and governance issues in sport. In 2020, she won Young Talent of the Year at the RTS Television Journalism Awards.

The Switch That Changed Her Career: From Sport to US Correspondent

The key turning point, and the gap most short biographies fail to explain, came in mid-2021, when Kelner became a Sky News US correspondent covering North America. She did not simply add American stories to a sports brief. She changed beats entirely, moving from sports correspondent to general news correspondent in the United States.

One of the first major stories she covered there was the June 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, near Miami, in which a 12-storey section of the oceanfront building fell. Reporting it required a different skill set: working at a disaster scene, speaking to grieving families and officials, and explaining a fast-moving rescue operation to a UK audience. Since then, based in Los Angeles, she has covered the western United States and travelled across the country, reporting on California community stories, immigration at the US-Mexico border and high-profile Los Angeles court cases.

Covering Trump and the Trump 100 Podcast

A large part of Kelner’s recent work has been covering Donald Trump’s second term as US President. She co-hosts Sky News’ Trump 100 podcast alongside James Matthews and Mark Stone. The podcast began by following the first 100 days of the second Trump administration and has continued as an ongoing series, with episodes on Tuesdays and Fridays plus extra episodes for major stories.

Writing about the podcast in Radio Times, Kelner described being on a plane to Chicago for what was expected to be the first of Trump’s mass deportation raids, only to learn mid-flight that the raids had been postponed, and diverting instead to Mexico, where she met migrants whose asylum appointments had been cancelled. In March 2025, she was involved in a widely shared exchange with Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. When Kelner tried to ask Greene about the Signal group chat leak involving US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Greene asked what country she was from and, on hearing Kelner was from the UK, told her to go back to her own country. Kelner later said she had expected that tone, did not take it personally, and did not regard herself as a victim.

Reporting Style and Recognition

What links Kelner’s sports investigations and her US reporting is method: working from documents and sources, testing claims before publication, and keeping asking questions when an institution would prefer the story to go away. She worked at the highest level in both print and television, winning major print awards before a television award, and then changing beats again to become a foreign correspondent. That combination is rare.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Martha Kelner?

Martha Kelner is a British journalist and a US Correspondent for Sky News, based in Los Angeles, covering American news, politics and major breaking stories for a UK audience.

Is Martha Kelner still a sports correspondent?

No. She was a Sky News sports correspondent from late 2018, but in mid-2021 she became a US correspondent covering North America. She is now a general news correspondent, not a sports correspondent.

Where did Martha Kelner work before Sky News?

She was Chief Sports Reporter at The Guardian from March 2017, and before that worked at the Daily Mail from 2011, rising to athletics correspondent. She studied Journalism Studies at the University of Sheffield.

What stories is Martha Kelner known for?

She is known for uncovering the Russian doping scandal in 2013, her British Cycling investigations, and the Chris Froome failed drug test scoop. In the US, she has covered the 2021 Surfside collapse, immigration and Donald Trump’s second term, including co-hosting Trump 100.

What is the Trump 100 podcast?

Trump 100 is a Sky News podcast following Donald Trump’s second term as US President, hosted by US correspondents including Martha Kelner, James Matthews and Mark Stone, with episodes on Tuesdays and Fridays.

More on Presslix

Read more: Geraint Vincent | Martin Kelner: BBC Radio Presenter, Author, Comedian and Journalist | Journalists & Media

Sources

• Martha Kelner — Wikipedia
• University of Sheffield — Knowing media law is vital, even as a sports journalist (Martha Kelner profile)
• InPublishing — Guardian appoints chief sports reporter (17 March 2017)
• Sports Journalists’ Association — Kelner is Guardian new chief sports reporter
• Radio Times — My way or the highway (Martha Kelner on Trump 100)
• Sky News presenters and editorial staff — Wikipedia
• Apple Podcasts — TRUMP100, Sky News
• LADbible — Reporter responds after US representative told her ‘go back to your own country’ (28 March 2025)
• House of Lords — National Plan for Sport and Recreation oral evidence