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]

Winners and nominees

Best Male Action Sports Athlete ESPY Award winners and nominees
Year Image Athlete Nationality Sport(s) regularly contested Nominees Refs
2004 – Ryan Nyquist  United States Freestyle BMX (park and dirt jumping) Brian Deegan ( USA) – Freestyle motocross
Bucky Lasek ( USA) – Skateboarding
Chad Reed ( AUS) – Motocross/Supercross 		[2][5]
2005 Dave Mirra at a rallying event in 2010 Dave Mirra  United States Freestyle BMX (street, park, and vert) Ricky Carmichael ( USA) – Motocross
Andy Irons ( USA) – Surfing
Bucky Lasek ( USA) – Skateboarding 		[14][15]
2006 Shaun White at a public event in 2008 Shaun White  United States Snowboarding (half-pipe) Jamie Bestwick ( GBR) – BMX
Ricky Carmichael ( USA) – Motocross
Kelly Slater ( USA) – Surfing
Jeremy Stenberg ( USA) – Freestyle motocross 		[7][16]
2007 Travis Pastrana in rallying overalls in 2009 Travis Pastrana  United States Motocross/rallying Ricky Carmichael ( USA) – Motocross
Kelly Slater ( USA) – Surfing
Danny Way ( USA) – Skateboarding
Andreas Wiig ( NOR) – Snowboarding 		[17][18]
2008 Shaun White at a public appearance in 2007 Shaun White  United States Snowboarding (half-pipe, slopestyle),
Skateboarding (vert) 		Kevin Pearce ( USA) – Snowboarding
Chad Reed ( AUS) – Supercross
Kevin Robinson ( USA) – BMX 		[19][20]
2009 Shaun White at a public event in 2009 Shaun White  United States Snowboarding (half-pipe, slopestyle),
Skateboarding (vert) 		Ryan Sheckler ( USA) – Skateboarding
Kelly Slater ( USA) – Surfing
James Stewart Jr. ( USA) – Motocross 		[21][22]
2010 Shaun White  United States Snowboarding (half-pipe, slopestyle),
Skateboarding (vert) 		Bobby Brown ( USA) – Freeriding
Ryan Dungey ( USA) – Motocross
Mick Fanning ( AUS) – Surfing
Garrett Reynolds ( USA) – Freestyle BMX 		[23][24]
2011 Shaun White holding a metal bar in 2011 Shaun White  United States Snowboarding (half-pipe, slopestyle),
Skateboarding (vert) 		Tucker Hibbert ( USA) – Snowmobiling
Travis Pastrana ( USA) – Motocross
Kevin Rolland ( FRA) – Freestyle skiing
Kelly Slater ( USA) – Surfing 		[25][26]
2012 Shaun White celebrating victory at the 2018 Winter Olympics Shaun White  United States Snowboarding (half-pipe, slopestyle),
Skateboarding (vert) 		Travis Rice ( USA) – Snowboarding
Kelly Slater ( USA) – Surfing
Ryan Villopoto ( USA) – Motocross 		[8][27]
2013 Nyjah Huston at the KDC 2015 Street World Championships Nyjah Huston  United States Street skateboarding Pedro Barros ( BRA) – Skateboarding
Mark McMorris ( CAN) – Snowboarding
Ryan Villopoto ( USA) – Motocross 		[28][29]
2014 – Nyjah Huston  United States Street skateboarding Grant Baker ( RSA) – Surfing
Tucker Hibbert ( USA) – Snowmobiling
Ryan Villopoto ( USA) – Motocross
David Wise ( USA) – Freestyle skiing 		[9][30]
2015 – Ryan Dungey  United States Motocross Tucker Hibbert ( USA) – Snowmobiling
Nyjah Huston ( USA) – Street skateboarding
Mark McMorris ( CAN) – Snowboarding
Josh Sheehan ( AUS) – Freestyle motocross 		[31][32]
2016 – Ryan Dungey  United States Motocross Pedro Barros ( BRA) – Skateboarding
Nyjah Huston ( USA) – Skateboarding
Gus Kenworthy ( USA) – Freestyle skiing
Mark McMorris ( CAN) – Snowboarding 		[10][33]
2017 A landscape photographic portrait of Mark McMorris taken in 2016 Mark McMorris  Canada Snowboarding Øystein Bråten ( NOR) – Freestyle skiing
John John Florence ( USA) – Surfing
Nyjah Huston ( USA) – Skateboarding 		[11][34]
2018 – David Wise  United States Freestyle skier Henrik Harlaut ( SWE) – Freestyle skiing
Kelvin Hoefler ( BRA) – Skateboarding
Marcus Kleveland ( NOR) – Snowboarding 		[35][36]
2019 – Nyjah Huston  United States Street skateboarding Scotty James ( AUS) – Snowboarding
Gabriel Medina ( BRA) – Surfing
Tom Pagès ( FRA) – Freestyle motocross 		[37][38]
2020 Not awarded due to the COVID-19 pandemic [12]
2021 Gabriel Medina  Brazil Surfing Marcus Kleveland ( NOR) – Snowboarding
Yūto Totsuka ( JPN) – Snowboarding
Cooper Webb ( USA) – Motocross/Supercross 		[39][40]
2022 Eli Tomac  United States Motocross/Supercross Alex Hall ( USA) – Skiing
Yuto Horigome ( JPN) – Skateboarding
Ayumu Hirano ( JPN) – Snowboarding 		[13][41]

See also

References

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External links

Best Male Action Sports Athlete ESPY Award winners
ESPY Awards
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