Luis Fernando Llosa is a writer, editor, speaker, investigative reporter and full time father-coach.
His first book, Beyond Winning: Smart Parenting in a Toxic Sports Environment (Lyons Press), comes out this fall. Co-authored with Kim John Payne (Simplicity Parenting) and Scott B. Lancaster (former National Football League youth sports director), it is a candid, practical guide to help parents navigate the fanatical, results-obsessed world of youth sports.
Llosa began his journalism career at FORTUNE MAGAZINE in 1995. After moving to MONEY MAGAZINE in 1996–and working there for three years–he joined SPORTS ILLUSTRATED as a general reporter. For the next twelve years he wrote, edited and investigated for the magazine. His first investigation, in 2001, exposed Little Leaguer Danny Almonte’s age fraud, ranked among the top ten sports scandals of the past century. In 2004, Llosa reported from Mexico and the Dominican Republic for “Totally Juiced,” Sports Illustrated’s National Magazine Award finalist in the reporting category.
Llosa has made more than 100 national and local television and radio appearances, including spots on CBS Evening News, CBS Early Show, CNN, CNN American Morning, CNN en Español, FOX, FOX News, FOX & Friends, Greta Van Susteren, Nancy Grace, Univision, and CNBC, to discuss steroid investigations and other sports-related issues. He’s been interviewed on NPR, ESPN Radio, The Jim Rome Show, and dozens of other major market radio shows.
He has been on panels, discussing steroids and journalism, at the Investigative Reporters & Editors and National Association of Hispanic Journalists conventions and addressed groups like the Association for Applied Sports Psychology Anti-Doping Congress. He has also spoken to high school student groups about steroids, writing and journalism.
He also introduced America to top-flight Hispanic athletes with the first detailed profiles of their lives and Hispanic backgrounds. Among them were golf superstars Lorena Ochoa, Camilo Villegas and Andres Romero, and world champion boxers Antonio Margarito, Edwin Valero and Felix Trinidad. He co-authored the 2007 Golf Writers Association Feature of the Year on U.S. Open winner Angel Cabrera.
In 2006 he conceived and co-wrote “The Mexican Connection” which exposed the largest steroid pipeline in history and detailed the DEA probe of the illegal importation of 80% of the steroids into the U.S. Over the next three years he reported on steroid use in sports, exposing athletes who received steroids and/or HGH, among them MLB stars Gary Matthews, Jr., David Bell, Troy Glaus and Jay Gibbons, boxer Evander Holyfield, 15 World Wrestling Entertainment stars, and two 2008 Jamaican Olympic track stars.
Llosa was the most sourced journalist in the Mitchell Report on Steroids in Major League Baseball. He broke stories on boxer Shane Mosley’s use of EPO and testosterone and the federal indictment of New York Mets clubhouse employee Kirk Rodomski. In 2008 he co-wrote “Sins of a Father” an SI exclusive about a 13-year-old in-line skater injected with HGH and testosterone by his father, who became the first parent ever convicted and jailed for providing his child with steroids. That story was sent to every member of the U.S. Congress during the Roger Clemens hearings and referenced in those proceedings.
Youth sports has been a primary passion for Llosa, who has coached soccer for eighteen years. He just recently co-founded Whole Child Sports, an organization which aims to help create a healthier youth sports experience for kids across America.
He lives with his wife and five children in New York City.