Swimmers Katie Ledecky and Brad Snyder, nominated for ESPY awards by sports media network ESPN, were not picked as the winners in their respective categories Wednesday night.
Ledecky was one of 4 women up for Best Female Athlete. Ledecky showed off her absurd range in the pool at last summer’s FINA World Championships, winning events all the way from the 200 freestyle to the 1500 freestyle. That accounted for 4 individual gold medals, and Ledecky also won gold as part of the American 4×200 free relay.
Over the course of 2015, she also set world records in the 800 and 1500 frees.
She was up against college basketball sensation (and new WNBA pro) Breanna Stewart, world champion gymnast Simone Biles and 2015 WNBA MVP Elena Delle Donne. The ESPY went to Stewart, who won her fourth consecutive NCAA title as part of the UConn women’s basketball team, was named Final Four Most Outstanding Player for a fourth straight season and was selected #1 in the WNBA draft.
Snyder lost his vision in Afghanistan while serving in the U.S. Navy, and now competes as a swimmer in the S11 Paralympic class. He’s a two-time Paralympic gold medalist and also holds the world record in the 100 free. At the 2015 IPC World Championships, Snyder swept the 50, 100 and 200 frees in the S11 classification.
He was up against sprint runner Richard Browne, cyclist Joe Berenyi, extreme wheelchair athlete Aaron Fotheringham and ice sledge hockey player Nikko Landeros. The ESPY went to Browne, who won 2 gold medals at the 2015 IPC World Athletics Championships.
So are we just going to ignore the fact that Elizabeth Marks won a huge award, someone who has a great shot at medaling in the Rio Paralympics, and has a great story? The Swimming community didn’t totally fail at the ESPYs, people.
Ledecky and Snyder are both rock stars. Their Olympic and Paralympic success will continue to shine in Rio.
It’s dumb. In 2004 Phelps didn’t get it either. I mean, it’s so dumb. What they do in the pool is so much more impressive than what others do. Running is closer than baseball, but still.
So if Ledecky, Stewart, Delle Donne, Biles(multiple gold medals chance even bigger than Ledecky), all win gold this summer, who will be the Best Female Athlete next year? 🙂
This was a “now or never” opportunity to award her.——This phrase equal to EVERYONE.
So far Ledecky lost FINA, SI, Team USA, Lawrence, Sullivan, ESPY’s Best Female Athlete awards, who know what will be next?
Reminder me, what Best Female Athlete she truly won since Kazan? At Golden Goggles maybe?
Well obviously unless your sport ends in “ball”, ESPN doesn’t care.
ESPN sucks
So if Ledecky, Stewart, Delle Donne, Biles(multiple gold medals chance even bigger than Ledecky), all win gold this summer, who will be the Best Female Athlete next year? 🙂
This was a “now or never” opportunity to award her.——This phrase equal to EVERYONE.
So far Ledecky lost FINA, SI, Team USA, Lawrence, Sullivan, ESPY’s Best Female Athlete awards, who know what will be next?
Reminder me, what Best Female Athlete she truly won since Kazan? At Golden Goggles maybe?
Looks like voters don’t know anything about sport.
What could Biles and Ledecky do more last year?
And Delle Donne and Stewart are great players but I can’t still believe they select them for the olympic games instead of Candace Parker and Nneka Ogwumike who are the best WNBA players of this season.
Shouts out to Bobo for watching the WNBA.
How do you objectively compare athletes across sports? They could have picked any one of three in the women’s category and had no argument from me.
Timing matters. Stewart capped a phenomenal college career with a phenomenal season and a phenomenal NCAA tournament. This was the optimal time to choose her. This was a “now or never” opportunity to award her.
Katie still has ample opportunity to impress. The Olympics are higher profile than the FINA world championships. If Katie has the games we all think she will (Dominant WR performances in the 400 & 800, gold in the 200, medal in the 4×200), she’ll be a household name with the general public by the end of summer an the… Read more »
Agree with Gary P balanced analysis. With all due respect (and as a swimmer) swimming is a lower profile sport than basketball. Degree of dominance in sport is not equal to best athlete. Let’s see Ledecky do it in Olympics and win in 2016.
Not surprised. Wait til Rio. Both Katie AND Simone will win much BETTER awards than an ESPY.