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Brittan Kennedy
Professor Kati Lewis
27 July 2015
ENGL 2010
The Ashe Award
The Ashe Courage Award is an award that is part of the ESPYs. It
is the most prestigious honor you can receive in sports. Even though it
is a sport related award, it isnt limited to just sports related people. It
is presented annually to those individuals whose contributions go
beyond their sport. The recipients, who reflect the strength of Arthur
Ashe, acquire courage in the sight of danger, the will to face adversity,
and the power to stand up for what they believe in no matter what.
Some winners in the past include Nelson Mandela, George Weah, and
Loretta Claiborne. However, this years winner has caused the biggest
upset.
A little about the award, Arthur
Ashe was the first African American
to win the mens singles at the U.S.
Open and Wimbledon ranking him
the number one tennis player in the
world. With his success it also
brought opportunity and
responsibility. He pushed to create

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tennis programs for the inner city youths that later helped create the
Association of Mens Tennis Professionals. Ashe also traveled around
South Africa speaking out against apartheid. In 1979 he suffered from a
heart attack and saw that as a chance to become the national
campaign chairman of the American Heart Association.
Having health issues over the last 14 years of his life, he had
undergone multiple surgeries. Ashe soon learned that, from a
transfusion of bad blood, he had contracted HIV, which had turned into
AIDS. Becoming an activist he turned all of his hard work into raising
awareness for this horrible disease. He started a new foundation and
raised millions of dollars for the institution. On February 6, 1993 he
passed away from AIDS. Ashe is remembered not only for is amazing
tennis career, but also a number of other things including this quote,
True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge
to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at
whatever cost. Arthur Ashe never backed down from the difficult
issues he faced, even though it may have been easier to do so. The
winners of the Ashe Award make every effort to carry on his legacy
throughout their own lives.
The winners in the past have included Mohammed Ali, Dean
Smith, a few of the Flight 93 passengers, Cathy Freeman, and many
more. However, this years winner has caused the most controversy.
Caitlyn Jenner has taken home the Ashe award for 2015, which has led

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to some significant criticism among the media. Caitlyn Jenner, formally
known as Bruce, was a gold medal-winning decathlon star that won the
Summer Olympics in 1976 becoming one of the most beloved athletes
at the time. Since then, he become a reality TV star and earlier this
year, Jenner revealed to the world that she is transgender and is in the
process of transitioning into a woman, now known as Caitlyn.
This was something Caitlyn struggled with throughout her life.
She appeared in a TV interview with Diane Sawyer in April stating to
the world that she has
always identified as a
woman. They discussed her
personal history with this
that included the times she
took hormones, her sexual
orientation, and the emotional roller coaster of talking to her family
about the transition. On June 1, 2015, she announced on Twitter that
she is now a woman known as Caitlyn. She wrote, Im so happy after
such a long struggle to be living my true self. Welcome to the world
Caitlyn. Cant wait for you to get to know her/me.
There are two different directions the media has run with this.
Some people have been very supportive, and some people have come
at Caitlyn in a negative way. With her winning the Arthur Ashe Courage
Award there have been a lot of people who disagree with it and arent

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holding back as to let everyone know why. Sportscaster king, Bob
Costas, was on The Dan Patrick Show last month basically stating that
this is just for the tabloids and no offense to Caitlyn, there were a
number of other people who deserved to win before her. He tells
Patrick In the broad world of sports, Im pretty sure they couldve
found someone who was much closer to actively involved in sports,
who wouldve been deserving of what that award represents. Next on
the list, NPR saint, Frank Deford felt the same way. He told the Los
Angeles Times that Arthur Ashe would be laughing in his grave with the
fact that Caitlyn Jenner received this award. Deford writes, Courage is
usually involved with overcoming something, Caitlyn is being forthright
and honest, but this is something that she wantedtheres not a great
deal of risk involved. A lot of other people think that the other
candidates one being Lauren Hill, a 19-year-old basketball player hit
with cancer who died after achieving her dream of scoring points in a
game, should have won. Kevin Frazier of Entertainment Tonight
states, Laurens journey was not about glamour or publicity. It was just
a girl who never gave up her dream of playing college basketball while
she was dying of cancer and along the way raising millions of dollars.
Then you have another candidate, Noah Galloway, who still competes
in adventure races and other events even though he lost an arm and a
leg during the Iraq War.

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You also have people on the other side
who are defending Jenner. Joey Vicente,
a solider in the U.S. Army, posted on
Facebook that peoples opinions on if
she deserved this award are irrelevant.
He essentially says that 41% of the
transgender community has attempted
suicide and that her speech could have saved even one person from
killing themselves, Id call that a victory on any scale. Id call that
(gasp) heroic? ESPN made it clear that they stand by their decision
of awarding Jenner, and that there are no runner-ups for the Ashe
Award. Maura Mandt, EPSY co-executive producer, writes, Bruce
Jenner could have easily gone off into the sunset as this American hero
and never have dealt with this publicly. Doing so took enormous
courage. Jenner, while accepting the award, closed her speech with,
If you want to call me names, make jokes and doubt my intentions, go
ahead because the reality is I can take it. But for the thousands of kids
out there coming to terms with the reality of who they are they
shouldnt have to take it.

Work Cited
"Arthur Ashe." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2015. Web. 27 July 2015.
Moyer, Justin Wm. Why Some Critics Dont Think Caitlyn Jenner
Deserved the
Arthur Ashe Courage Award. The Washington Post, 16 July 2015.
AP. Emotional Caitlyn Jenner Accepts Arthur Ashe Courage Award at
ESPYs. US
A Today. Gannett, 16 July 2015. Web