Best Breakthrough Athlete ESPY Award

The Best Breakthrough Athlete ESPY Award, known alternatively as the Breakthrough Athlete of the Year ESPY Award,[1] is an annual award honoring the achievements of an individual in the world of sports.[2] It was first awarded as part of the ESPY Awards in 1993.[2] The Best Breakthrough Athlete ESPY Award trophy, created by sculptor Lawrence Nowlan,[3] is awarded to the sportsperson adjudged to have made the greatest breakthrough in a major international individual sport or North American professional team sport. The award is typically given to a sportsperson in his or her rookie season at a given level but may be won by any athlete who in a given year improves his or her performance dramatically or otherwise becomes well-recognized.[2] Since 2004, the winner has been chosen by online voting through choices selected by the ESPN Select Nominating Committee.[4] Before that, determination of the winners was made by an panel of experts.[5] 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 July and reflect performance from the June previous.[lower-alpha 1][6]

Best Breakthrough Athlete ESPY Award
Awarded forbest national or international breakthrough in the world of individual and team sports
LocationMicrosoft Theater, Los Angeles (2019)
Presented byESPN
First awarded1993
Currently held bySaquon Barkley (USA)
Websitewww.espn.co.uk/espys/

The inaugural winner of the Best Breakthrough Athlete ESPY Award in 1993 was San Diego Pardres outfielder Gary Sheffield.[1][7] The Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Hideo Nomo of Japan received the trophy in 1996,[8] and is one of two sports persons born outside of the United States to have received the award, the other being Dominican Republican left fielder and second baseman Alfonso Soriano of the New York Yankees in 2003.[9] It has been awarded to one woman in its history, Mo'ne Davis of the Little League Baseball team Anderson Monarchs in 2015.[10] American football players have been most successful at the awards with eleven victories and thirteen nominations, followed by baseball players with eight wins and ten nominations. No athlete has ever won the accolade more than once. The 2017 winner of the Best Breakthrough Athlete ESPY Award was quarterback Dak Prescott of the Dallas Cowboys who led the No. 1 National Football Conference seed to a 13–3 record.[11] The award wasn't awarded in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Winners and nominees
Best Breakthrough Athlete ESPY Award winners and nominees
Year Image Athlete Nationality Team Competition Sport Nominees Refs
1993 Gary Sheffield  USA San Diego Padres Major League Baseball Baseball Fred Couples ( USA) – Golf
Jim Courier ( USA) – Tennis
Barry Foster ( USA) – Pittsburgh Steelers		 [1][7]
1994 Mike Piazza  USA Los Angeles Dodgers Major League Baseball Baseball N/A [12]
1995 Jeff Bagwell  USA Houston Astros Major League Baseball Baseball Ernie Els ( RSA) – Golf
Tommy Moe ( USA) – Skiing		 [13][14]
1996 Hideo Nomo  JPN Los Angeles Dodgers Major League Baseball Baseball Jeff Blake ( USA) –Cincinnati Bengals
Martin Brodeur ( CAN) – New Jersey Devils		 [8][15]
1997 Tiger Woods  USA N/A PGA Tour Golf Mariano Rivera ( PAN) – New York Yankees
Alex Rodriguez ( USA) – Seattle Mariners		 [16][17]
1998 Nomar Garciaparra  USA Boston Red Sox Major League Baseball Baseball N/A [18]
1999 Randy Moss  USA Minnesota Vikings National Football League American football N/A [19]
2000 Kurt Warner  USA St. Louis Rams National Football League American football Sergio García ( SPA) – Golf
Serena Williams ( USA) – Tennis		 [20][21]
2001 Daunte Culpepper  USA Minnesota Vikings National Football League American football Rulon Gardner ( USA) – Wrestling
Josh Heupel ( USA) – Oklahoma Sooners
Marat Safin ( RUS) – Tennis		 [22][23]
2002 Tom Brady  USA New England Patriots National Football League American football Kevin Harvick ( USA) – NASCAR
Sarah Hughes ( USA) – Figure skating
Ichiro Suzuki ( JPN) – Seattle Mariners		 [24][25]
2003 Alfonso Soriano  DOM New York Yankees Major League Baseball Baseball LeBron James ( USA) – Cleveland Cavaliers
Jimmie Johnson ( USA) – NASCAR
Yao Ming ( CHN) – Houston Rockets
Clinton Portis ( USA) – Denver Broncos		 [9][26]
2004 LeBron James  USA Cleveland Cavaliers National Basketball Association Basketball Freddy Adu ( USA) – Soccer
Carmelo Anthony ( USA) – Denver Nuggets
Jake Delhomme ( USA) – Carolina Panthers
Michelle Wie ( USA) – Golf		 [27][28]
2005 Dwyane Wade  USA Miami Heat National Basketball Association Basketball Danica Patrick ( USA) – IndyCar Series
Ben Roethlisberger ( USA) – Pittsburgh Steelers
Maria Sharapova ( RUS) – Tennis		 [29][30]
2006 Chris Paul  USA New Orleans Hornets National Basketball Association Basketball Kimmie Meissner ( USA) – Figure skating
Alexander Ovechkin ( RUS) – Washington Capitals
Shaun White ( USA) – Snowboarding		 [31][32]
2007 Devin Hester  USA Chicago Bears National Football League American football Kevin Durant ( USA) – Texas Longhorns
Ryan Howard ( USA) – Philadelphia Phillies
Morgan Pressel ( USA) – Golf		 [33][34]
2008 Adrian Peterson  USA Minnesota Vikings National Football League American football Kyle Busch ( USA) – NASCAR
Stephen Curry ( USA) – Davidson Wildcats
Ana Ivanovic ( SER) – Tennis		 [35][36]
2009 Matt Ryan  USA Atlanta Falcons National Football League American football Shawn Johnson ( USA) – Gymnastics
Evan Longoria ( USA) – Tampa Bay Rays
Derrick Rose ( USA) – Chicago Bulls		 [37][38]
2010 Chris Johnson  USA Tennessee Titans National Football League American football Brittney Griner ( USA) – Baylor Bears
Stephen Strasburg ( USA) – Washington Nationals
John Wall ( USA) – Kentucky Wildcats		 [39][40]
2011 Blake Griffin  USA Los Angeles Clippers National Basketball Association Basketball José Bautista ( DOM) – Toronto Blue Jays
Arian Foster ( USA) – Houston Texans
Li Na ( CHN) – Tennis
Cam Newton ( USA) – Auburn Tigers		 [41][42]
2012 Jeremy Lin  USA New York Knicks National Basketball Association Basketball Anthony Davis ( USA) – Kentucky Wildcats
Robert Griffin III ( USA) – Baylor Bears
Rob Gronkowski ( USA) – New England Patriots
Alex Morgan ( USA) – Soccer		 [43][44]
2013 Colin Kaepernick  USA San Francisco 49ers National Football League American football Johnny Manziel ( USA) – Texas A&M Aggies
Yasiel Puig ( CUB) – Los Angeles Dodgers
Mike Trout ( USA) – Los Angeles Angels
Russell Wilson ( USA) – Seattle Seahawks		 [45][46]
2014 Richard Sherman  USA Seattle Seahawks National Football League American football Nick Foles ( USA) –Philadelphia Eagles
Damian Lillard ( USA) – Portland Trail Blazers
Masahiro Tanaka ( JPN) – New York Yankees		 [47][48]
2015 Mo'ne Davis  USA Anderson Monarchs Little League Baseball Baseball Odell Beckham Jr. ( USA) – New York Giants
Cardale Jones ( USA) – Ohio State Buckeyes
Jordan Spieth ( USA) – Golf		 [10][49]
2016 Jake Arrieta  USA Chicago Cubs Major League Baseball Baseball Karl-Anthony Towns ( USA) – Minnesota Timberwolves
Chloe Kim ( USA) – Snowboarding
Conor McGregor ( IRL) – MMA		 [50][51]
2017 Dak Prescott  USA Dallas Cowboys National Football League American football Giannis Antetokounmpo ( GRE) – Milwaukee Bucks
Laurie Hernandez ( USA) – Gymnastics
Aaron Judge ( USA) – New York Yankees
Christian Pulisic ( USA) – Soccer		 [11][52]
2018 Donovan Mitchell  USA Utah Jazz National Basketball Association Basketball Alvin Kamara ( USA) – New Orleans Saints
Ben Simmons ( USA) – Philadelphia 76ers
Sloane Stephens ( USA) – Tennis		 [53][54]
2019 Saquon Barkley  USA New York Giants National Football League American football Naomi Osaka ( USA) – Tennis
Christian Yelich ( USA) – Milwaukee Brewers
Trae Young ( USA) – Atlanta Hawks		 [55]
2020 Not awarded due to the COVID-19 pandemic

See also

Notes and references

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.[6]

References
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