The ESPY Award for Best College Athlete, Women's Sports, known before 2021 as the Best Female College Athlete ESPY Award, is an annual award honoring the achievements of a female individual from the world of
collegiate sports.
It was first presented as part of the
ESPY Award
The ESPY Awards (short for Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Awards, and often referred to as the ESPYs) is an annual American awards show produced by ESPN since 1993, recognizing individual and team athletic achievement and other sports-r ...
s in 2002, following the subsumption of the
Best Female College Basketball Player ESPY Award, which was presented annually between the 1993 and 2001 ceremonies, inclusive.
The award trophy, designed by sculptor
Lawrence Nowlan,
is awarded to the sportswoman adjudged to be the best in a given calendar year of those contesting collegiate sport in the United States through the
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
(NCAA).
Since the 2004 awards, the winner has been chosen by online voting through three to five nominees 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 Female College Athlete ESPY Award at the 2002 awards was
University of Connecticut
The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...
(UConn)
Huskies basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
player
Sue Bird
Suzanne Brigit Bird (born October 16, 1980) is an American former professional basketball player who played her entire career with the Seattle Storm of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Bird was drafted first overall pick by t ...
.
During her collegiate career, Bird won two NCAA championships, and was awarded a further eight accolades for her achievements. She became the first of two basketball players to be nominated for, and hence to win, the Best Female College Athlete ESPY Award. The 2003 winner of the award was another UConn player,
Diana Taurasi.
Taurasi won the accolade again the following year,
and is one of three women, all UConn basketball players, to have received the Best Female College Athlete ESPY Award more than once: the most any one woman has won is
Maya Moore
Maya April Moore (born June 11, 1989) is an American social justice advocate and former professional basketball player. Naming her their inaugural Performer of the Year in 2017, ''Sports Illustrated'' called Moore the "greatest winner in the hist ...
, who earned three consecutive awards between the
2009
2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...
and
2011
The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...
ceremonies.
Basketball players dominate the winners list, with 14 awards, while
softball
Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...
competitors have won five times, and just one
swimmer
Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...
(the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
Golden Bears'
Missy Franklin at the
2015 ESPY Awards) has been recognized in the accolade's history. The most recent winner of the award is Iowa basketball player
Caitlin Clark
Caitlin Elizabeth Clark (born January 22, 2002) is an American professional basketball player for the Indiana Fever of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Regarded as one of the greatest female collegiate players, Clark was tw ...
.
The accolade was combined with the
Best Male College Athlete ESPY Award to create the
Best College Athlete ESPY Award which was presented for the first time at the
2018 ESPY Awards.
Beginning in 2021, the awards were again separated into men's and women's versions using the current naming scheme.
Winners and nominees
Statistics
See also
*
List of sports awards honoring women
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
*
Best Male College Athlete ESPY Award
*
''Sporting News'' College Athlete of the Year
*
National Collegiate Athletic Association awards
*
ACC Athlete of the Year Award
*
All-America
The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...
*
NCAA Woman of the Year Award
Notes and references
Notes
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Best Female College Athlete Espy Award
ESPY Awards
College sports trophies and awards in the United States
Women's sports in the United States
Sports awards honoring women
Awards established in 2002
2002 establishments in the United States