The purpose of this study is to monitor the news media in the field of sports under social distancing policies implemented due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For data analysis, we collected news articles from March 22, 2020 to March 30, 2023, when social distancing was implemented in Korea, and conducted topic modeling, one of the natural language processing techniques. The topic modeling tool used was BERTopic based on python programming, and a series of processes from keyword extraction, preprocessing, and topic modeling were performed from the collected news source data. The results of the analysis varied. Macro thematic areas were identified, such as the measures taken by government agencies related to sports with social distancing; quarantine guidelines and issues arising from the epidemic situation, such as postponement, suspension, and non attendance of professional sports and sports mega events; ethical issues related to the violation of lock down by athletes and managers; the rise and decline of the golf industry; the use of advanced technology for limited sports participation during social distancing; and the reactivation of life sports after social distancing was lifted. Through each of these themes, the media’s portrayal of sport and social distancing in the post-social distancing era was identified, with various frames including informational, topical, critical, and positive.