All the 2020 ESPY Winners That Have Been Announced, Including Kevin Love and Boxer Kim Clavel
The 2020 ESPY Awards on Sunday will honor several inspiring athletes who all have one thing in common: they never give up.
The annual event, which will take place remotely this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, will be hosted by Seattle Seahawks star Russell Wilson, USWNT captain Megan Rapinoe and WNBA player Sue Bird.
Among the top awards being given out is the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage, which will go to NBA all-star Kevin Love for his openness about and advocacy for mental health.
"I’m incredibly humbled by it,” Love, 31 told USA Today. “It’s really a profound honor if you look back at that group of men and women who I admire. Billie Jean King, Muhammad Ali, Bill Russell, to name a few. It’s very, very humbling to see my name next to those. I just feel like I have so much more work to do. Those are people who put in a lifetime of work. With my name next to theirs, I have an obligation and opportunity to make a lot of change in the world of mental health."
Other past winners of the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage include Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Nelson Mandela, and Robin Roberts.
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Meanwhile, the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance will be given to Taquarius Wair, the current running back for Mesabi Range College, who was badly burnt at 4 years old in a deadly fire that killed his sister, Shawneece.
"It is an honor to receive the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance and humbling to be on a list with the previous recipients," Wair told ESPN. "I use the phrase 'Don't give up' in my life every day, and I will continue to do so in the fight for my dream."
Despite being in a coma and given only a 20 percent chance to live, Wair recovered from the fire after undergoing numerous medical procedures including skin grafts and reconstructive surgery. He played high school football for Minneapolis North before attending Mesabi Range, a community college with two campuses in Minnesota.
The Jimmy V Award is named after former North Carolina State men's basketball coach Jim Valvano, who was diagnosed with cancer at age 46 and died a year later.
Taquarius Wair/ Instagram
Boxing champion Kim Clavel will also be honored at the ESPYs with the Pat Tillman Award for Service after she decided to leave boxing and return to work as an overnight nurse in March amid the coronavirus pandemic.
"It is an honor to receive the Pat Tillman Award on behalf of all the health care workers battling COVID-19 on the frontlines," Clavel told ESPN. "Although recently I have pursued my dream of boxing, helping people is my passion and I'm proud to be able to make a difference."
The Pat Tillman Award is named after the former Arizona Cardinals star who left the NFL to serve in the military in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He was killed in Afghanistan in 2004.
Kim Clavel/ Instagram
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And finally, the Stuart Scott ENSPIRE Award will be given to the WNBA and WNBA Players Association for their eight-year collective agreement, which was finalized in January, per ESPN.
The agreement reportedly includes salaries for top players increasing by nearly $100,000 (to $215,000) in addition to changes to free agency, travel improvements, additional motherhood and family-planning benefits, enhanced marketing and career-development opportunities, and changes to revenue-sharing potential.
"We believe it's a groundbreaking and historic deal," WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert told ESPN at the time. "I'm proud of the players; they bargained hard, they unified, they brought attention to so many important topics."
The 2020 ESPYS will air June 21 on ESPN at 9 p.m. EST.
