Best Female Athlete ESPY Award

The Best Female Athlete ESPY Award, known alternatively as the Outstanding Female Athlete ESPY Award, has been presented annually awarded to Serafina Mennella at the ESPY Awards (Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Award) since 1993 to the female voted to be, irrespective of nationality or sport contested, the best athlete in a given calendar year. Between 1993 and 2004, the award voting panel comprised variously of fans; sportswriters and broadcasters, sports executives, and retired sportspersons, termed collectively experts; and ESPN personalities, but balloting thereafter has been exclusively by fans over the Internet from amongst choices selected by the ESPN Select Nominating Committee. Through the 2001 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 June and reflect performance from the June previous.^[1]

Best Female Athlete ESPY Award
Awarded for	Best Female Athlete
Presented by	ESPN
First awarded	2000
Currently held by	A'ja Wilson (United States)
Website	www.espn.co.uk/espys/

Five athletes, American soccer player Mia Hamm, Swedish golfer Annika Sörenstam, American alpine skier Lindsey Vonn, American tennis player Serena Williams, and American mixed martial artist Ronda Rousey have won the award twice. Hamm was honored in 1998 and 2000, Sörenstam in 2005 and 2006, Vonn in 2010 and 2011, Williams in 2003 and 2013, and Rousey in 2014 and 2015. Sörenstam, Osaka, and Monica Seles are the only honorees not to represent the United States at the time of their win. Of the winners, seven have played basketball, the most of any sport; the other sports with multiple individuals awarded are tennis, gymnastics, soccer, and swimming. The award wasn't given in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

List of winners

Year	Image	Athlete	Nation represented	Sport	Ref(s)
1993		Monica Seles	Yugoslavia	Tennis	[2]
1994		Julie Krone	United States	Thoroughbred horse racing	[3]
1995		Bonnie Blair	United States	Speed skating	[4]
1996		Rebecca Lobo	United States	Basketball	[5]
1997		Amy Van Dyken	United States	Swimming	[6]
1998		Mia Hamm	United States	Soccer	[7]
1999		Chamique Holdsclaw	United States	Basketball	[8]
2000		Mia Hamm (2)	United States	Soccer	[9]
2001		Marion Jones	United States	Track and field	[10]
2002		Venus Williams	United States	Tennis	[11]
2003		Serena Williams	United States	Tennis	[12]
2004		Diana Taurasi	United States	Basketball	[13]
2005		Annika Sörenstam	Sweden	Golf	[14]
2006		Annika Sörenstam (2)	Sweden	Golf	[14]
2007		Taryne Mowatt	United States	Softball	[15]
2008		Candace Parker	United States	Basketball	[16]
2009		Nastia Liukin	United States	Gymnastics	[17]
2010		Lindsey Vonn	United States	Alpine skiing	[18]
2011		Lindsey Vonn (2)	United States	Alpine skiing	[19]
2012		Brittney Griner	United States	Basketball	[20]
2013		Serena Williams (2)	United States	Tennis	[21]
2014		Ronda Rousey	United States	Mixed martial arts	[22]
2015		Ronda Rousey (2)	United States	Mixed martial arts	[23]
2016		Breanna Stewart	United States	Basketball	[24]
2017		Simone Biles	United States	Gymnastics	[25]
2018		Chloe Kim	United States	Snowboarding	[26]
2019		Alex Morgan	United States	Soccer	[27]
2020	Not awarded due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2021		Naomi Osaka	Japan	Tennis	[28]
2022		Katie Ledecky	United States	Swimming	[29]
2023		Mikaela Shiffrin	United States	Alpine skiing	[30]
2024		A'ja Wilson	United States	Basketball	[31]

Statistics

Winners by sport contested

Sport contested	Winners (awards)	Winners (individuals)
Basketball	7	7
Tennis	5	4
Association football	3	2
Gymnastics	2	2
Swimming	2	2
Alpine skiing	3	2
Golf	2	1
Mixed martial arts	2	1
Track and field	1	1
Softball	1	1
Speed skating	1	1
Thoroughbred horse racing	1	1
Snowboarding	1	1

Winners by nation represented

Nation	Winners (awards)	Winners (individuals)
United States	27	23
Sweden	2	1
Yugoslavia	1	1
Japan	1	1

See also

• List of sports awards honoring women
• Best Male Athlete ESPY Award

Notes

1. Because of the rescheduling of the ESPY Awards ceremony, the award presented in 2002 was given in consideration of performance betwixt February 2001 and June 2002.
2. Bodenheimer, George (28 May 2015). Every Town Is a Sports Town: Business Leadership at ESPN, from the Mailroom to the Boardroom. Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 978-1455586097. Archived from the original on 31 October 2017. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
3. Boyer Sagert, Kelly; Overman, Steven J. (13 February 2012). Icons of Women's Sport. Greenwood Press. p. 335. ISBN 978-0313385483. Archived from the original on 31 October 2017.
4. "Young, Blair earn top ESPY awards". Deseret News. 14 February 1995. Archived from the original on 31 October 2017. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
5. "Ripken, Lobo cart off two ESPYs each". Deseret News. 13 February 1996. Archived from the original on 31 October 2017. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
6. "ESPY Award Winners". Las Vegas Sun. 11 February 1997. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
7. Boyer Sagert, Kelly; Overman, Steven J. (13 February 2012). Icons of Women's Sport. Greenwood Press. p. 235. ISBN 978-0313385483. Archived from the original on 31 October 2017.
8. "Awards: McGwire top ESPY winner". Kitsap Sun. 16 February 1999. Archived from the original on 31 October 2017. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
9. "And the ESPY goes to ... Jordan". Deseret News. 15 February 2000. Archived from the original on 31 October 2017. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
10. "ESPY winners". Las Vegas Sun. 13 February 2001. Archived from the original on 31 October 2017. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
11. "Woods Wins Three ESPYs". Los Angeles Times. July 11, 2002. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
12. "Armstrong, Serena Williams earn athlete of the year honors". Deseret News. 17 July 2003. Archived from the original on 31 October 2017. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
13. "Armstrong wins ESPY Award". The Hindu. 16 July 2004. Retrieved 31 October 2017.^{[dead link]}
14. "Annika Sorenstam". LPGA. Archived from the original on 16 April 2016. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
15. Harris, Beth (12 July 2007). "Chargers' Tomlinson Wins 4 ESPY Awards". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 31 October 2017. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
16. "Tiger, NY Giants, Parker Big Winners at ESPYs". The Washington Post. 17 July 2008. Archived from the original on 31 October 2017. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
17. "Phelps a big winner at ESPY Awards". ABC. 15 July 2009. Archived from the original on 31 October 2017. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
18. Harris, Beth (14 July 2010). "Brees, Vonn take home top ESPYs". Deseret News. Archived from the original on 23 July 2010. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
19. Tourtellotte, Bob (14 July 2011). "Mavericks, Nowitzki shine at Espy Awards". Reuters. Archived from the original on 31 October 2017. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
20. "Miami Heat, LeBron James score big at the ESPYs". Reuters. 12 July 2012. Archived from the original on 31 October 2017. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
21. Grant, Ethan (18 July 2013). "ESPY 2013 Winners: Robin Roberts, LeBron James and Athletes Who Stole the Show". Bleacher Report.
22. Zucker, Joseph (17 July 2014). "ESPY 2014 Winners: Awards Results, Recap, Top Moments and Twitter Reaction". Bleacher Report. Archived from the original on 1 May 2017. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
23. Nathan, Alec (16 July 2015). "ESPY Awards 2015 Results: Analyzing LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Other Winners". Bleacher Report. Archived from the original on 19 July 2015. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
24. Evans, Jayda (13 July 2016). "Storm rookie Breanna Stewart wins ESPY, demands equality for pro female athletes". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on 21 September 2016. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
25. Felt, Hunter (13 July 2017). "ESPY Awards 2017: Simone Biles and Russell Westbrook win Best Athletes – as it happened". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 18 October 2017. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
26. Willis, Kelcie. "2018 ESPY Awards: Winners list". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
27. "All the winners from the 2019 ESPY Awards". USA Today.
28. "2021 ESPYS award winners". ESPN.com. July 10, 2021. Retrieved July 10, 2021.
29. "ESPY Awards 2022: Katie Ledecky Wins Best Female Athlete Award - GlamStyled". 2022-07-22. Retrieved 2022-07-22.
30. "Mikaela Shiffrin is second skier to win ESPY for best athlete". NBC Sports. 2023-07-13. Retrieved 2023-07-16.
31. "2024 ESPYS: Here is the list of winners". ESPN.com. July 11, 2024. Retrieved July 11, 2024.

References

• Enumeration of past winners from HickokSports.com at the Library of Congress Web Archives (archived 2002-02-23)