By Braden Keith on SwimSwam
The nominees have been announced for the 2025 ESPYS, and swimmer Gretchen Walsh received a big nod. The now-graduated Virginia Cavalier
The ESPYS are the most significant sports award show in the United States hosted by ESPN and give awards from across sports and categories. While swimmers have been nominated, and won, awards in Athlete of the Year, Olympic athlete and Athletes with a Disability categories, they have been ominously absent from the Best Collegiate Athlete Awards in recent years.
The last swimmer to win the award was Missy Franklin in 2015, and the last swimmer nominated for the award was Katie Ledecky in 2018.
Walsh had arguably the best season of any collegiate swimmer in history.
The ESPYS first added Best College Athlete for Men’s Sports and Women’s Sports in 2002. From 2018-2021, they were combined into a single gender-neutral category, and then split back out into separate categories.
While Franklin is the only swimmer to ever win the award, swimmers have received nominations 8 times – mostly in the 2000s.
No male swimmer has ever been nominated. Collegiately, she won the maximum seven NCAA event titles and led Virginia to its 5th-straight NCAA Team Championship. She also finished her career with the maximum 28 All-America titles and 25 NCAA titles – including 9 individual titles. In the middle of the season, she won five titles at the Short Course World Championships. Across international and collegiate meets during her senior season of college, she set the first 13 World Records of her career in 323 days, a shorter timespan than any swimmer in history, set multiple American and NCAA Records, and generally dominated the season from start-to-finish.
She was also named the CSCAA Women’s Swimmer of the Year and the Honda Sport Award winner for swimming & diving.
She is nominated against Pitt volleyball player Olivia Babcock, North Carolina soccer player Kate Faasse, and USC basketball player JuJu Watkins. Of that group, only Walsh and Faasse won NCAA team titles in the 2024-2025 season.
An ESPN Nomination Select Committee chooses the nominees, and a public vote “helps to determine ESPY winners.” The 2025 awards show will be air on July 16 and be hosted by comedian Shane Gillis.
You can vote here.All-Time Swimming Nominees, Best College Athlete, Women’s Sports:
2002 – Natalie Coughlin, Cal 2003 – Natalie Coughlin, Cal 2004 – Tara Kirk, Stanford 2007 – Kara Lynn Joyce, Georgia 2009 – Dana Vollmer, Cal 2011 – Katinka Hosszu, USC 2012 – Caitlin Leverenz, Cal 2015 – Missy Franklin, Cal (Winner) 2018 – Katie Ledecky, Stanford (open gender award) 2025 – Gretchen Walsh, VirginiaAll-Time Nominees By Sport, Best College Athlete in Women’s Sports
Through 2025 Nominations
Winners and nominees by sport Sport Winners Nominations Basketball 14 24 Softball 5 21 Swimming 1 9 Soccer 0 14 Volleyball 0 11 Lacrosse 0 8 Gymnastics 0 4All-Time Nominees By Sport, Best College Athlete in Men’s Sports
Through 2025 Nominations
Winners and nominees by sport Sport Winners Nominations Basketball 7 30 Football 12 27 Wrestling 1 10 Ice hockey 0 8 Lacrosse 0 7 Soccer 0 6 Baseball 0 5 Track and field 0 1All 2025 ESPY Nominees
BEST ATHLETE – MEN’S SPORTS
Josh Allen – Buffalo Bills Saquon Barkley – Philadelphia Eagles Shai Gilgeous-Alexander – Oklahoma City Thunder Shohei Ohtani – Los Angeles Dodgers BEST ATHLETE – WOMEN’S SPORTS
Simone Biles – Gymnast Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone – Track & Field Gabby Thomas – Track & Field A’ja Wilson – Las Vegas AcesBEST BREAKTHROUGH ATHLETE
Cooper Flagg – Duke Men’s Basketball Chloe Humphrey – North Carolina Women’s Lacrosse Ilona Maher – Rugby Paul Skenes – Pittsburgh PiratesBEST RECORD-BREAKING PERFORMANCE
Geno Auriemma – UConn Huskies Caitlin Clark – Indiana Fever Kevin Durant – Olympic Basketball Alexander Ovechkin – Washington CapitalsBEST CHAMPIONSHIP PERFORMANCE
Simone Biles – 2024 Olympics Women’s All-Around Stephen Curry – US Men’s Olympic BB team Freddie Freeman – LA Dodgers – World Series MVP Rory McIlroy – Wins first Masters title, completing career Grand SlamBEST COMEBACK ATHLETE
Gabe Landeskog – Colorado Avalanche Suni Lee – Gymnast Mallory Swanson – USWNT/Chicago Red Stars Lindsey Vonn – SkiingBEST PLAY
Saquon Barkley’s backwards hurdle – NFL (11/3/24) Tyrese Haliburton Calls Game!!! – NBA Game 1 NBA Finals (6/5/25) Sabrina Ionescu Logo 3 Game Winner – WNBA Finals Game 3 Trinity Rodman with the OT Goal to send USWNT to the semi-finals – 2024 Olympics BEST TEAM
Florida Panthers – NHL Los Angeles Dodgers – MLB New York Liberty – WNBA Ohio State Buckeyes – NCAA Football Oklahoma City Thunder – NBA Philadelphia Eagles – NFL North Carolina Tar Heels – NCAA Women’s Lacrosse United States Women’s National Team – Soccer University of Connecticut Huskies – Women’s BasketballBEST COLLEGE ATHLETE – MEN’S SPORTS
Cooper Flagg – Duke Basketball Wyatt Hendrickson – Oklahoma State Wrestling Travis Hunter – Colorado Football CJ Kirst – Cornell LacrosseBEST COLLEGE ATHLETE – WOMEN’S SPORTS
Olivia Babcock – University of Pittsburgh Volleyball Kate Faasse – North Carolina Soccer Gretchen Walsh – Virginia Swimming JuJu Watkins – USC BasketballBEST ATHLETE WITH A DISABILITY
Noah Elliott – Snowboard Ezra Frech – Track & Field Tatyana McFadden – Track & Field Grace Norman – ParatriathleteBEST NFL PLAYER
Josh Allen – Buffalo Bills Saquon Barkley – Philadelphia Eagles Lamar Jackson – Baltimore Ravens Patrick Surtain II – Denver BroncosBEST MLB PLAYER
Freddie Freeman – Los Angeles Dodgers Aaron Judge – New York Yankees Shohei Ohtani – Los Angeles Dodgers Tarik Skubal – Detroit TigersBEST NHL PLAYER
Leon Draisaitl – Edmonton Oilers, Connor Hellebuyck – Winnipeg Jets Nikita Kucherov – Tampa Bay Lightning Cale Makar – Colorado AvalancheBEST NBA PLAYER
Giannis Antetokounmpo – Milwaukee Bucks Shai Gilgeous-Alexander – Oklahoma City Thunder Nikola Jokić – Denver Nuggets Jayson Tatum – Boston CelticsBEST WNBA PLAYER
Caitlin Clark – Indiana Fever Napheesa Collier – Minnesota Lynx Breanna Stewart – New York Liberty A’ja Wilson – Las Vegas AcesBEST DRIVER
Joey Logano – NASCAR Álex Palou – IndyCar Oscar Piastri – F1 Max Verstappen – F1BEST UFC FIGHTER
Dricus Du Plessis Merab Dvalishvili Kayla Harrison Islam MakhachevBEST BOXER
Naoya Inoue Claressa Shields Katie Taylor Oleksandr UsykBEST SOCCER PLAYER
Aitana Bonmatí – FC Barcelona/Spain Christian Pulisic – AC Milan, US Alexia Putellas FC Barcelona/Spain Lamine Yamal – FC Barcelona/SpainBEST GOLFER
Nelly Korda Rory Mcllroy Scottie Scheffler Maja StarkBEST TENNIS PLAYER
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