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Arthur Ashe Courage Award

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The Arthur Ashe Courage Award (sometimes called the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage or Arthur Ashe for Courage Award) is an award that is part of the ESPY awards. 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". Often these transcendent figures are also athletes who have been at the top of their sport, such as Muhammad Ali, Dean Smith, and Cathy Freeman.

List of recipients

Year Recipients
1993 Jim Valvano
1994 Steve Palermo
1995 Howard Cosell
1996 Loretta Claiborne
1997 Muhammad Ali
1998 Dean Smith
1999 Billie Jean King
2000 William David Sanders*
2001 Cathy Freeman
2002 Todd Beamer*, Mark Bingham*, Tom Burnett*, and Jeremy Glick*[1]
2003 Pat Tillman* and Kevin Tillman[2]
2004 George Weah[3][4]
2005 Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah and Jim MacLaren
2006 Roia Ahmad and Shamila Kohestani
2007 Trevor Ringland and David Cullen from Peace Players International
2008 Tommie Smith and John Carlos
2009 Nelson Mandela
2010 Family of Ed Thomas
2011 Dewey Bozella
2012 Pat Summitt (Award Video and Speech)
2013 Robin Roberts
2014 Michael Sam
2015 Caitlyn Jenner

*Posthumously awarded

2015 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[5] and some members of the media, with Bob Costas calling the decision to give Jenner the award a "crass exploitation play".[6] Most of the 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 spring 2015 season of Dancing with the Stars, as a worthy candidate.[5]

In July 2015, Conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro and transgender rights activist Zoey Tur were on Dr. Drew On Call to discuss Caitlyn Jenner's receipt of the Award.[7][8] Shapiro publicly announced that "self identification is what you do" as justification for why Jenner was undeserving of the award.

References

  1. ^ "Flight 93 passengers selected for Ashe Award". Associated Press/ESPN. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
  2. ^ "The 2003 ESPY Awards - Tillman brothers to receive Ashe Award". Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  3. ^ "The 2004 ESPY Awards - Weah selected for Arthur Ashe Courage Award". Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  4. ^ "Arthur Ashe Courage Award Given To GMC Trucks". Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  5. ^ a b Falzone, Diane (June 3, 2015). "Anger over Caitlyn Jenner being chosen over Lauren Hill for ESPY courage award". Fox News. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
  6. ^ "Bob Costas slams ESPN over Caitlyn Jenner ESPY courage award". Fox News. June 10, 2015. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
  7. ^ http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ben-shapiro-files-complaint-transgender-reporter-tur-article-1.2298804
  8. ^ http://www.newsweek.com/conservative-editor-files-police-report-against-transgender-reporter-after-355851