Best Male Action Sports Athlete ESPY Award

Best Male Action Sports Athlete ESPY Award
Awarded forbest male action sports athlete
LocationVarious
Presented byESPN
First awarded2004
Currently held byEli Tomac (USA)
Websitewww.espn.co.uk/espys/

The Best Male Action Sports Athlete ESPY Award is an annual award honoring the achievements of a male athlete from the world of action sports.[1] It was first awarded as part of the ESPY Awards in 2004 after the non-gender-specific Best Action Sports Athlete ESPY Award was presented the previous two years (with American snowboarder Shaun White receiving the 2003 award).[2] The Best Male Action Sports Athlete ESPY Award trophy, created by sculptor Lawrence Nowlan,[3] is presented to the male adjudged to be the best action sports athlete in a given calendar year. Balloting for the award is undertaken by fans over the Internet from between three and five choices selected by the ESPN Select Nominating Committee, which is composed of a panel of experts.[1] It is conferred in July to reflect performance and achievement over the preceding twelve months.[4]

The inaugural winner of the Best Male Action Sports Athlete ESPY Award at the 2004 awards was freestyle BMX rider Ryan Nyquist.[5] During 1997 and 2003, Nyquist won eleven out of eighteen available freestyle BMX medals at the X Games.[6] He became the first freestyle BMX rider to be nominated for, and thus the first to win, an ESPY Award.[5] The 2006 winner of the Best Male Action Sports Athlete ESPY Award was Shaun White.[7] He was nominated a further five consecutive times between the 2008 and 2012 ceremonies, all of which he won, making him the athlete with the most victories with six.[8] The two other athletes to have earned successive awards are street skateboarder Nyjah Huston and motocross rider Ryan Dungey.[9][10] Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris became the first non-American to win the accolade in 2017 by earning three medals at that year's X Games in Minneapolis.[11] Snowboarders are the most successful sportspeople with seven awards, followed by motocross riders, with four, and street skateboarders, with three. It was not awarded in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[12] The most recent winner of the award was American Motocross and Supercross racer Eli Tomac in 2022.[13]

  1. ^ a b Nelson, Murry R. (2013). American Sports: A History of Icons, Idols and Ideas. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. pp. 399–401. ISBN 978-0-313-39753-0. Archived from the original on March 25, 2018. Retrieved March 25, 2018 – via Google Books.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference OS2004 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Avard, Christian (August 2, 2013). "Sculptor commissioned to complete Joe Frazier statue has died". Barre Montpelier Times Argus. Archived from the original on February 21, 2014. Retrieved January 21, 2018.
  4. ^ "New categories unveiled for The 2002 ESPY Awards" (Press release). ESPN. 2002. Archived from the original on December 22, 2017. Retrieved December 20, 2017.
  5. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference RBMXNyquist was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Ryan Nyquist". X Games. Archived from the original on April 5, 2018. Retrieved April 5, 2018.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference 2006winners was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference WhiteWin2012 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference HustonWin2014 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference DungeyWin2016 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference McMorrisWin2017 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Messer, Lesley (June 19, 2020). "7 ways the 2020 ESPYS will be different amid the pandemic". Good Morning America. Archived from the original on June 20, 2020. Retrieved August 16, 2020.
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference 2022Winner was invoked but never defined (see the help page).