The Best Athlete with a Disability ESPY Award (sometimes called the Outstanding Athlete with a Disability ESPY Award) is an annual award honoring the achievements of an athlete from the world of
disabled sports.
It was first presented as part of the
ESPY Awards at the 2002 edition as part of the ceremony's tenth anniversary of its establishment.
The Best Athlete with a Disability ESPY Award trophy, designed by sculptor
Lawrence Nowlan,
was presented to the disabled sportsperson adjudged to be the best at the annual
ESPY Awards ceremony in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
.
For the 2004 ceremony, the winner was chosen by online voting through choices selected by the ESPN Select Nominating Committee. Before that, determination of the winners was made by an panel of experts. Through the
2001
The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...
iteration of the ESPY Awards, ceremonies were conducted in February of each year to honor achievements over the previous calendar year; awards presented thereafter are conferred in July and reflect performance from the June previous.
The inaugural winner of the Best Athlete with a Disability ESPY Award at the 2002 edition was mountain climber
Erik Weihenmayer who has a total
visual impairment
Visual or vision impairment (VI or VIP) is the partial or total inability of visual perception. In the absence of treatment such as corrective eyewear, assistive devices, and medical treatment, visual impairment may cause the individual difficul ...
and he became the first blind person to reach the summit of
Mount Everest
Mount Everest (), known locally as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at it ...
in May 2001.
He is one of three people to have won the award during its three-year history; sprinter
Marlon Shirley won the accolade at the 2003 ceremony for becoming the first amputee in history to set a time below eleven seconds in the
men's 100 metres at the Utah Summer Games,
and
Kyle Maynard was voted the winner of the award in the 2004 iteration because of his strong form in
freestyle wrestling
Freestyle wrestling is a style of wrestling. It is one of two styles of wrestling contested in the Olympic Games, along with Greco-Roman wrestling, Greco-Roman. scholastic wrestling, High school wrestling and men's collegiate wrestling in the U ...
in high school despite being born with
congenital amputation that resulted in the shortening of all his limbs.
The Best Athlete with a Disability ESPY Award was discontinued and bifurcated by gender in
2005
2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...
to establish the
Best Male Athlete with a Disability ESPY Award and the
Best Female Athlete with a Disability ESPY Award. The award was reinstated in
2023
Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...
.
Winners and nominees
See also
*
United States Olympic Committee Paralympian of the Year Award
*
Laureus World Sports Award for Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability
Notes and references
Notes
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Best Athlete With A Disability Espy Award
ESPY Awards
Disabled sports awards
Awards established in 2002
Awards disestablished in 2004
2002 establishments in the United States