Best Record-Breaking Performance ESPY Award | |
Awarded For: | best record-breaking performance |
Presenter: | ESPN |
Location: | Los Angeles (2017) |
Year: | 2001 |
Holder: | Caitlin Clark (USA) |
The Best Record-Breaking Performance ESPY Award has been presented since 2001 to the amateur or professional sportsperson, irrespective of nationality or sport contested, adjudged to have, in a single play, game, or season, completed the best record-breaking (and -setting) performance, irrespective of the nature of the record broken.
Between 2001 and 2004, the award voting panel comprised variously fans; sportswriters and broadcasters, sports executives, and retired sportspersons, termed collectively experts; and ESPN personalities, but balloting thereafter has been undertaken exclusively by fans over the Internet from amongst choices nominated by the ESPN Select Nominating Committee.
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 June and reflect performance from the June previous.[1]
In 2024, Caitlin Clark became the first female athlete to win this award.[2]
Year of award | Image | Athlete | Nation of citizenship | Team | Competition, governing body, or league | Sport | Record set | Previous record-holder | Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2001 | Tennis | Total career men's singles Grand Slam titles (13). This record has since been surpassed by Roger Federer. | (12) | [3] [4] [5] | |||||
2002 | Golf | Consecutive men's major championships won (Four—the 2000 U.S. Open, The Open Championship, and PGA Championship and the 2001 Masters Tournament [known as the ''[[Grand Slam (golf)|consecutive Grand Slam]]]) | (three, in 1953) | [6] [7] | |||||
2003 | Dallas Cowboys | National Football League (NFL) | American football | Total career NFL rushing yards (17,162 at the close of the league's 2002 season, with 975 tallied therein) | American Walter Payton (16,726, across the 13 seasons between 1975 and 1987, inclusive) | [8] [9] | |||
2004 | Los Angeles Dodgers | Major League Baseball (MLB) | Baseball | Consecutive saves converted in a single MLB regular season (55 across the league's 2003 season) | (46, in 1998) | [10] | |||
2005 | Indianapolis Colts | National Football League (NFL) | American football | Total single-season NFL passing touchdowns (49 in the league's 2004 season) | (48 in the 1984 season) | [11] | |||
2006 | Seattle Seahawks | Total single-season NFL rushing touchdowns (27 in the league's 2005 season) | (23, in 2003) | [12] [13] | |||||
2007 | San Diego Chargers | Total single-season NFL rushing touchdowns (28 in the league's 2006 season) | (27, in 2005) | ǂ[14] | |||||
2008 | Green Bay Packers | Total career NFL passing touchdowns (442 at the close of the 2007 season, with 28 tallied therein) | (420, across the 17 seasons between 1983 and 1999, inclusive) | [15] | |||||
2009 | Olympic Games | Swimming | Total gold medals achieved at a single Games of the Olympiad (eight in the 2008 Summer Olympics) | (seven, at the 1972 Summer Olympics) | [16] [17] | ||||
2010 | John Isner vs. Nicolas Mahut | and | Wimbledon | Tennis | Longest match in tennis history, lasting 11 hours, 5 minutes; Isner defeated Mahut 70–68 in the fifth set of the 1st round match. | Fabrice Santoro vs. Arnaud Clément fourth round match at the 2004 French Open lasting 6 hours, 33 minutes. | [18] [19] | ||
2011 | U.S. Open | Golf | In winning the U.S. Open, McIlroy broke tournament records for the lowest 72-hole score, both in total strokes (268) and in relation to par (−16). | 72-hole score (272): Jim Furyk, 2003; Tiger Woods, 2000; Lee Janzen, 1993; Jack Nicklaus, 1980. To-par (−12): Woods, 2000. | [20] [21] | ||||
2012 | New Orleans Saints | National Football League (NFL) | American football | Brees threw for 5,476 yards in 2011–12, breaking the NFL single-season record. | (5,084 yards in 1984) | [22] [23] | |||
2013 | Olympic Games | Swimming | Phelps became the most decorated Olympian in history, finishing the London Olympics with a total of 22 medals. | (19 medals, 1956–1964, representing the Soviet Union) | [24] | ||||
2014 | Denver Broncos | National Football League (NFL) | American football | Manning set single-season NFL records for both passing yardage (5,477) and touchdown passes (55) in the 2013 season. | Yardage: Drew Brees (5,476 yards in 2011) TDs: Tom Brady (50 in 2007) | [25] [26] [27] | |||
2015 | Manning set the NFL record for career touchdown passes (530 at the end of the 2014 season). | Brett Favre (touchdown passes 1991–2010) | [28] [29] | ||||||
2016 | Golden State Warriors | National Basketball Association (NBA) | Basketball | Curry set the record for most three-point field goals in a season with 402. | Curry had the previous record, 286 in the 2014–15 season. | [30] [31] | |||
2017 | Olympic Games | Swimming | Phelps extended his own record of being the most decorated Olympian during the Rio Olympics in 2016 with a total of 28 Olympic medals. He now has 23 Gold, 3 Silver, and 2 Bronze Olympic Medals. | Phelps previously held the record when he broke it in the London 2012 Olympics where he finished with a grand total of 22 Olympic medals. | [32] | ||||
2018 | Wimbledon | Tennis | Most Wimbledon Gentlemen's Singles championships all time with 8 | Federer was previously tied with William Renshaw & Pete Sampras with 7 | [33] | ||||
2019 | New Orleans Saints | National Football League (NFL) | American football | Brees set the record for most passing yards (71,940) | Peyton Manning | ||||
2020 | Not awarded due to the COVID-19 pandemic | ||||||||
2021 | Washington Wizards | National Basketball Association (NBA) | Basketball | Westbrook set the record for most career triple-doubles (182) | Oscar Robertson (181) | [34] | |||
2022 | Golden State Warriors | Curry set the record for most career three-point field goals (3,117) | Ray Allen (2,973) | [35] | |||||
2023 | Los Angeles Lakers | James set the record for most NBA career points (38,652) | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387) | [36] | |||||
2024 | Iowa Hawkeyes | National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) | Clark set the record for most NCAA career points scored (men's and women's) (3,951) | Pete Maravich (3,667) | [37] |