Best Female Athlete with a Disability ESPY Award

The Best Female Athlete with a Disability ESPY Award is an annual award honoring the achievements of a female individual from the community of disabled sports.^[1] Established with the aid of disability advocate and former United States Paralympic soccer player Eli Wolff,^[2] the accolade's trophy, designed by sculptor Lawrence Nowlan,^[3] is presented to the disabled sportswomen adjudged to be the best at the annual ESPY Awards ceremony in Los Angeles.^[1] The Best Female Athlete with a Disability ESPY Award was first bestowed as part of the ESPY Awards in 2005 after the non-gender specific Best Athlete with a Disability ESPY Award was presented the previous three years (all won by sportsmen).^[4][5] 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.^[6]

Best Female Athlete with a Disability ESPY Award
Awarded for	best disabled female athlete
Country	United States
Presented by	ESPN
First award	2005
Currently held by	Jessica Long (USA)
Website	www.espn.co.uk/espys/

The inaugural winner of the Best Female Athlete with a Disability ESPY Award at the 2005 ceremony was an American swimmer named Erin Popovich, who is affected by achondroplasia. She won seven gold medals at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens.^[7] She is one of three people to have won the Best Female Athlete with a Disability ESPY Award more than once, winning again at the 2009 awards.^[8] Fellow swimmer Jessica Long has the most victories of any other sportswoman, collecting the award four times at the 2007, 2012, 2013 and 2022 ESPY Awards, with one further nomination at the 2009 ESPY Awards,^[8][9][10] while cross-country skier Oksana Masters has been nominated the most times (eight) without winning. Swimmers have been successful at the awards with nine victories and 13 nominations, followed by paratriathles with three wins and nine nominations. It was not awarded in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[11] The incumbent holder is American paralympic swimmer Jessica Long after being announced as the winner at the 2022 ESPY Awards.^[12]

Winners and nominees

Key

*	Indicates individual whose nomination was withdrawn

Best Female Athlete with a Disability ESPY Award winners and nominees

Year	Image	Athlete	Nationality	Sport	Nominees	Refs
2005	–	Erin Popovich	United States	Swimming	Cheri Blauwet ( USA) – Wheelchair racing Katie Compton ( USA) – Cycling Karissa Whitsell ( USA) – Cycling	[7][13]
2006		Sarah Reinertsen	United States	Triathlon	Rachael Scdoris ( USA) – Sled dog racing Laurie Stephens ( USA) – Alpine skiing	[14][15]
2007		Jessica Long	United States	Swimming	Amy Palmiero-Winters ( USA) – Triathlon Esther Vergeer ( NED) – Wheelchair tennis Stephani Victor ( USA) – Alpine skiing	[16][17]
2008	–	Shay Oberg	United States	Softball	Patty Cisneros ( USA) – Wheelchair basketball Jessica Galli ( USA) – Wheelchair racing Susan Beth Scott ( USA) – Swimming	[18][19]
2009	–	Erin Popovich	United States	Swimming	Jessica Long ( USA) – Swimming Maureen McKinnon-Tucker ( USA) – Yachting Asya Miller ( USA) – Goalball	[8][20]
2010	–	Amy Palmiero-Winters	United States	Triathlon	Linnea Dohring ( USA) – Gymnastics Alana Nichols ( USA) – Wheelchair basketball Stephani Victor ( USA) – Alpine skiing	[21]
2011		Mallory Weggemann	United States	Swimming	Allison Jones ( USA) – Cycling Tatyana McFadden ( USA) – Wheelchair racing Alana Nichols ( USA) – Alpine skiing Melissa Stockwell ( USA) – Triathlon	[22][23]
2012		Jessica Long	United States	Swimming	Chelsea McClammer ( USA) – Track and field Tatyana McFadden  USA) – Wheelchair racing Alana Nichols ( USA) – Alpine skiing Melissa Stockwell ( USA) – Triathlon	[9][24]
2013		Jessica Long	United States	Swimming	Victoria Arlen ( USA) – Swimming Marianna Davis ( USA) – Cycling Tatyana McFadden ( USA) – Wheelchair racing Shirley Reilly ( USA) – Wheelchair racing	[10][25]
2014	–	Jamie Whitmore	United States	Cycling	Minda Dentler ( USA) – Triathlon Oksana Masters ( USA) – Cross-country skiing Tatyana McFadden ( USA) – Wheelchair racing Laurie Stephens ( USA) – Alpine skiing	[26][27]
2015	–	Rebecca Meyers	United States	Swimming	Kendall Gretsch ( USA) – Triathlon Oksana Masters ( USA) – Cross-country skiing Tatyana McFadden ( USA) – Wheelchair racing Greta Neimanas ( USA) – Cycling	[28][29]
2016		Tatyana McFadden	United States	Wheelchair racing	Heather Erickson ( USA) – Volleyball Bethany Hamilton* ( USA) – Surfing[a] Oksana Masters ( USA) – Cross-country skiing Shawn Morelli ( USA) – Cycling	[31][32]
2017	–	Rebecca Meyers	United States	Swimming	Oksana Masters ( USA) – Cross-country skiing Tatyana McFadden ( USA) – Wheelchair racing Shawn Morelli ( USA) – Cycling Grace Norman ( USA) – Triathlon	[33][34]
2018	–	Brenna Huckaby	United States	Snowboarding	Kendall Gretsch ( USA) – Cross-country skiing Oksana Masters ( USA) – Cross-country skiing Tatyana McFadden ( USA) – Wheelchair racing	[35][36]
2019		Allysa Seely	United States	Triathlon	Oksana Masters ( USA) – Cross-country skiing Tatyana McFadden ( USA) – Wheelchair racing Shawn Morelli ( USA) – Cycling	[37][38]
2020	Not awarded due to the COVID-19 pandemic					[11]
2021	–	Rebecca Murray	United States	Wheelchair basketball	Sam Bosco ( USA) – Cycling Oksana Masters ( USA) – Cycling Leanne Smith ( USA) – Swimming	[39][40]
2022		Jessica Long	United States	Swimming	Oksana Masters ( USA) – Biathlon/cycling Brenna Huckaby ( USA) – Snowboarding Kate Ward ( USA) – Soccer	[12][41]

Statistics

Multiple winners and nominees Name Wins Nominations Jessica Long 4 5 Rebecca Meyers 2 2 Erin Popovich 2 2 Tatyana McFadden 1 9 Amy Palmiero-Winters 1 2 Oksana Masters 0 8 Alana Nichols 0 3 Shawn Morelli 0 2 Laurie Stephens 0 2 Melissa Stockwell 0 2 Stephani Victor 0 2

Winners and nominees by sport Sport Winners Nominations Swimming 9 13 Triathlon 3 9 Wheelchair racing 1 12 Cycling 1 13 Wheelchair basketball 1 2 Snowboarding 1 2 Softball 1 0 Alpine skiing 0 6 Cross-country skiing 0 7 Biathlon 0 1 Goalball 0 1 Gymnastics 0 1 Sled dog racing 0 1 Soccer 0 1 Track and field 0 1 Volleyball 0 1 Yachting 0 1

See also

• List of sports awards honoring women
• Best Male Athlete with a Disability ESPY Award
• United States Olympic Committee Paralympian of the Year Award
• Laureus World Sports Award for Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability

Notes

1. Hamilton stated to Seven News in November 2016 that she asked for the withdrawal of her nomination due to its wording since she sees herself as "adaptive" rather than "disabled".^[30]

References

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External links

• Official website