The Arthur Ashe Courage Award (sometimes called the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage or Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award) is presented as part of the ESPY Awards. It is named for the American tennis player Arthur Ashe. Although it is a sport-oriented award, it is not limited to sports-related people or actions, as it is presented annually to individuals whose contributions "transcend sports".[3] According to ESPN, the organization responsible for giving out the award, "recipients reflect the spirit of Arthur Ashe, possessing strength in the face of adversity, courage in the face of peril and the willingness to stand up for their beliefs no matter what the cost".[1] The award was presented as part of the ESPY Awards ceremony at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles from 2008 to 2019.[4] The 2020 ESPYs ceremony was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the Ashe Award being one of the few awards presented, and the 2021 ceremony was held in New York City.
| Arthur Ashe Courage Award | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | "reflect[ing] the spirit of Arthur Ashe, possessing strength in the face of adversity, courage in the face of peril and the willingness to stand up for their beliefs"[1] |
| Location | The Rooftop at Pier 17, New York City (2021)[2] |
| Presented by | ESPN |
| First awarded | 1993 |
| Currently held by | Vitali Klitschko |
| Website | Official website |
The inaugural award, made at the 1993 ESPY Awards, was presented to the American college basketball player, coach, and broadcaster Jim Valvano.[5][6] In 1993, ESPN partnered with Valvano to create the V Foundation which presents the annual Jimmy V Award to "a deserving member of the sporting world who has overcome great obstacles through perseverance and determination."[7][8] Suffering from cancer, Valvano gave the inaugural Arthur Ashe Courage Award acceptance speech which "brought a howling, teary-eyed Madison Square Garden to its feet".[9] Valvano died two months after receiving the award.[9] Although the award is usually given to individuals, it has been presented to multiple recipients on seven occasions: former athletes on United Airlines Flight 93 (2002), Pat and Kevin Tillman (2003), Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah and Jim MacLaren (2005), Roia Ahmad and Shamila Kohestani (2006), Trevor Ringland and David Cullen (2007), and Tommie Smith, John Carlos (2008), and survivors of the USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal (2018). The accolade has been presented posthumously on five occasions.
The award has not been without controversy: in June 2015, ESPN's announcement of Caitlyn Jenner as the recipient of that year's Arthur Ashe Courage Award led to significant criticism among online commenters and some members of the media,[10] with Bob Costas calling the decision to give Jenner the award a "crass exploitation play".[11] Many critics of the Jenner award considered Lauren Hill, who played college basketball despite suffering from a brain tumor that would claim her life only a few months later, a more worthy recipient. Others cited Noah Galloway, an Iraq War double amputee who competes in extreme sports and was also a finalist in the 20th season of Dancing with the Stars in 2015, as a worthy candidate.[12][13][14]
The 2022 recipient of the Arthur Ashe Courage Award was Vitali Klitschko.
Recipients
| † | Indicates posthumous award |
|---|
| Year | Image | Recipient(s) | Notes | Ref(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 |  | Jim Valvano | American college basketball player, coach, and broadcaster, died from adenocarcinoma | [6] |
| 1994 | – | Steve Palermo | Major League Baseball umpire paralysed from the waist down after attempting to prevent a mugging | [15] |
| 1995 |  | Howard Cosell | Journalist, creator of ABC SportsBeat, the first serious investigative sports journalist program | [16] |
| 1996 | – | Loretta Claiborne | Multi-sports Special Olympics athlete | [17] |
| 1997 |  | Muhammad Ali | Boxer, an example of racial pride for African Americans and resistance to white domination during the civil rights movement. | [6] |
| 1998 |  | Dean Smith | College basketball coach for 36 years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | [18] |
| 1999 | .jpg) | Billie Jean King | Tennis player, campaigned for equal prize money in both men's and women's tennis | [19] |
| 2000 | - | William David Sanders† | High school sports coach killed defending students during the Columbine High School massacre | [20][21] |
| 2001 | .jpg) | Cathy Freeman | Track and field athlete, first Indigenous Australian person to become an Olympic Games gold medallist | [22] |
| 2002 |  | Todd Beamer† Mark Bingham† Tom Burnett† Jeremy Glick† | Athletes onboard United Airlines Flight 93 (National Memorial pictured) who tried to reclaim control from the hijackers | [20] |
| 2003 |  | Pat Tillman (pictured) Kevin Tillman | Pat was an American football player who played for the Arizona Cardinals in the NFL, his brother Kevin a Minor League Baseball player; both enlisted, forgoing their sporting careers | [20][23] |
| 2004 | .jpg) | George Weah | Association footballer who became a UN Goodwill Ambassador | [24] |
| 2005 | – | Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah Jim MacLaren | Yeboah brought attention to disabled people in Ghana, himself with a deformed leg, by cycling across the country. McLaren became a successful triathlete after having his leg amputated. | [25] |
| 2006 | – | Roia Ahmad Shamila Kohestani | Championing girls' and women's sport, specifically the Afghan women's association football team | [26] |
| 2007 |  | Trevor Ringland David Cullen (pictured) | Members of PeacePlayers International which uses basketball to unite and educate children | [27] |
| 2008 |  | Tommie Smith John Carlos | Olympic track athletes, medalists at the 1968 Summer Olympics, who gave the Black Power salute on the podium | [28] |
| 2009 | .jpg) | Nelson Mandela | South African President, his presentation of the 1995 Rugby World Cup to Francois Pienaar was described as "an iconic moment in sports history" | [29] |
| 2010 | – | Ed Thomas† | High school American football coach, shot and killed by a former student | [20] |
| 2011 | – | Dewey Bozella | Boxer, wrongly imprisoned for 26 years | [30] |
| 2012 |  | Pat Summitt | College basketball coach with, as of 2018[update], the most wins in NCAA basketball history, retired with early-onset Alzheimer's disease | [31] |
| 2013 |  | Robin Roberts | Broadcaster, increased awareness in bone marrow donation through public coverage of her own illness | [32] |
| 2014 |  | Michael Sam | American football player, first publicly gay player to be drafted in the NFL | [6] |
| 2015 |  | Caitlyn Jenner | Former Olympic track and field athlete and transgender television personality | [33] |
| 2016 | Zaevion Dobson† | Fifteen-year-old American football player who used his body to shield three girls from a drive-by shooting | [20] | |
| 2017 |  | Eunice Kennedy Shriver† | Founder of the Special Olympics | [6] |
| 2018 |  | Survivors of the USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal (The Fierce Five pictured) | Over 300 girls and women, mostly gymnasts, including but not limited to Rachael Denhollander, Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman, Jordyn Wieber, Gabby Douglas, and Maggie Nichols, who survived the abuse of Larry Nassar, spoke out about and shined a light on sexual abuse in sports, and demanded change and accountability | [34] |
| 2019 |  | Bill Russell | First African American coach in NBA history, a role he held while also continuing to play | [35] |
| 2020 | .jpg) | Kevin Love | Advocacy for and openness about mental health | [36] |
| 2021 | _(cropped).jpg) | Maya Moore | Walked away from basketball to help free a wrongfully convicted man. | [37] |
| 2022 | .jpg) | Vitali Klitschko | Showed great courage and bravery by defending Ukraine as a soldier along with his brother Wladimir Klitschko and was vocally critical of Vladimir Putin, using his position of mayor (longest serving mayor of Kyiv) to do so. | [38] |
| 2023 |  | United States women's national soccer team | Fought for equal pay. | [39] |