Awards & Winners

Best Breakthrough Athlete ESPY Award

ESPY Award

The Best Breakthrough Athlete ESPY Award has been presented annually since 1993 to the sportsperson, irrespective of nationality, gender, or sport contested, adjudged to have made the greatest breakthrough in a major international individual sport or North American professional team sport. The award is typically given to a sportsperson in his or her rookie season at a given level but may be won by any athlete who in a given year improves his or her performance dramatically or otherwise becomes well-recognized. Between 1993 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 exclusively by fans over the Internet from amongst choices selected 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.
Date Established : 1993

Check all the winners of Best Breakthrough Athlete ESPY Award presented under ESPY Award since 1993 .


Nominations 2014 »

Nominee Nominated Work
Nick Foles
Damian Lillard
Richard Sherman
Masahiro Tanaka

Nominations 2013 »

Nominee Nominated Work
Colin Kaepernick
Johnny Manziel
Yasiel Puig
Mike Trout
Russell Wilson

Nominations 2012 »

Nominee Nominated Work
Jeremy Lin
Anthony Davis
Robert Griffin III
Rob Gronkowski
Alex Morgan

Nominations 2011 »

Nominee Nominated Work
Blake Griffin
José Bautista
Arian Foster
Li Na
Cam Newton

Nominations 2010 »

Nominee Nominated Work
Chris Johnson
Stephen Strasburg
Brittney Griner
John Wall

Nominations 2009 »

Nominee Nominated Work
Shawn Johnson
Evan Longoria
Derrick Rose
Matt Ryan

Nominations 2008 »

Nominee Nominated Work
Adrian Peterson
Stephen Curry
Kyle Busch
Ana Ivanovic

Nominations 2007 »

Nominee Nominated Work
Devin Hester
Kevin Durant
Ryan Howard
Morgan Pressel

Nominations 2006 »

Nominee Nominated Work
Alexander Ovechkin
Chris Paul
Kimmie Meissner
Shaun White

Nominations 2005 »

Nominee Nominated Work
Danica Patrick
Ben Roethlisberger
Maria Sharapova
Dwyane Wade

Nominations 2004 »

Nominee Nominated Work
LeBron James
Freddy Adu
Carmelo Anthony
Jake Delhomme
Michelle Wie

Nominations 2003 »

Nominee Nominated Work
Alfonso Soriano
LeBron James
Jimmie Johnson
Yao Ming
Clinton Portis

Nominations 2002 »

Nominee Nominated Work
Tom Brady
Kevin Harvick
Sarah Hughes
Ichiro Suzuki

Nominations 2001 »

Nominee Nominated Work
Daunte Culpepper
Rulon Gardner
Josh Heupel
Marat Safin

Nominations 2000 »

Nominee Nominated Work
Kurt Warner
Sergio García
Serena Williams