15 Amazing Bodies of Female ESPY Award Winners

In the world of sports, the ESPY Awards stand as a testament to the incredible achievements of athletes who continue to push the boundaries of physical excellence. Among these remarkable individuals are the female ESPY Award winners, whose bodies are finely tuned instruments of athleticism and strength. In this article, we delve into the fitness, wellness, and training secrets of 15 exceptional women who have earned the coveted ESPY accolades.

1. Mikaela Shifrin

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Mikaela Shifrin won Best Athlete, Women’s Sports, this year. She revealed some of her favorite workouts on Instagram. Shifrin enjoys doing Pilates. “This is just straight up nourishment for the whole body,” she explained in the caption. “It’s a serious combo of a lot of core, upper body, hip, leg strength and active mobility. My sessions range from more recovery focused to a very intense core work, but it really can be targeted for your specific needs. It’s been a godsend for me over the last few years.”

2. A’ja Wilson

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A’ja Wilson won the 2023 Best WNBA Award. She shared some of her wellness secrets with Bustle. In it, Wilson revealed her hydration secrets. “I don’t carry a water bottle around, but I do drink a lot of water. I hydrate myself with Ladder, an electrolyte packet that you can mix in. Sometimes I get tired of just straight water when I’m rehydrating on the bench during a game, so I’ll add that for some flavor.”

3. Claressa Shields

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Claressa Shields won Best Boxer at this year’s awards. She shared her training routine and secrets with Muscle and Fitness. “I make myself get up early in the morning to do my cardio. My coaches [at Jackson Wink] right now are showing me a lot of new techniques, which my body still needs to be conditioned to do. I’ll work on wrestling drills for about 45 minutes, then learn how to fight off the cage and against it, also learn how to take somebody down when they’re trying to resist.”

4. Katie Ledecky

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Katie Ledecky walked away with two awards at last year’s ESPY’s: Best Athlete, Women’s Sports, and Best Olympian, Women’s Sports. She shared her diet secrets with E! News. “I keep it pretty consistent. The only day that I don't train is Sundays, so even right now when I'm taking a little bit of time off, I'm trying to stick to a pretty regular routine. So oatmeal for breakfast, some sort of egg sandwich for lunch, or eggs with toast and then dinner is what varies the most but it is either carbs or some sort of protein: chicken, steak, salmon, something along those lines.”

5. Megan Rapinoe

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Megan Rapinoe won Best Play at last year’s awards, and the Arthur Ashe Courage Award with her teammates this year. She shared some of her fitness secrets with Bustle. “Weight training is really big for me. Obviously, I run a lot playing soccer, but I also make sure that I strength train and pay attention to how everything’s working in my body, especially as I get older. I love Pilates, which is amazing for that. I feel like it strengthens you from the inside out. Rest is also really important. It’s how I get the maximum out of my workouts and how I make sure my body's recovering.”

6. Ashley Hatch

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Ashley Hatch won the Best NWSL Player award in 2022. She revealed to The Washington Post that she makes sure to not succumb to pressure during games. “When my mind’s right, sometimes even if I’m not feeling physically my best. I feel like I can push through hard times, and I can play even better.” Hatch says that she does breathing and confidence building exercises.

7. Candace Parker

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Candace Parker won the 2022 award for Best WNBA Player. She shared how she’s changing up her approach on the court to SB Nation. “I think simplicity has always been difficult for me. I think physically because you know, I’ve been versatile and have played multiple positions. I think simplicity was always, you know, me dribbling and me doing this and whatever. And now I’ve just learned that simplicity is key, doing things with the least amount of motion is going to benefit me greatly. So I think that is the biggest thing to me is just yes, I can dribble and do that, but it’s more beneficial for me to be able to do it with less motion.”

8. Nelly Korda

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Nelly Korda won the 2022 Best Female Golfer Award. She shared how she warms up for a game to Golf Digest. “It’s more that I’m working on my strike out there. It’s about finding my timing. I typically start about an hour and five minutes before my tee time. I want to make sure my body and muscles are loose. I start off with pitch shots on the range and then I work my way all the way up through my bag.”

9. Crystal Dunn

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Crystal Dunn won the Arthur Ashe Courage Award with her US Women’s Soccer teammates this year. In an interview with POPSugar, Dunn talked about how she approaches the sport, after being cut from the 2015 World Cup. "I was so uptight about everything. I'm a totally different player than I was four years ago. I take things as they come now. I try not to take everything so seriously, so harshly."

10. Aubrey Kingsbury

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Aubrey Kingsbury was another recipient of this year’s Arthur Ashe Courage Award. She likes to spend time outside, and specifically enjoys going hiking. Kingsbury posted this set of photos on Instagram of herself hiking in North Island, New Zealand. She captioned the post, “NZ, thanks for an epic adventure.”

11. Alex Morgan

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Alex Morgan has won several ESPY’s, including this year’s Arthur Ashe Courage Award. She talked about how her diet has evolved to Insider. "I have a really good relationship with my body and understanding what it needs and nourishing it in the right way," Morgan said. "That comes with years of experience, but you have to start somewhere, and I think a lot of female athletes aren't given that support early in their career."

12. Casey Krueger

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Casey Krueger also won the Arthur Ashe Courage Award this year. In an essay with NWSLsoccer.com, she talked about her journey to becoming a mother and returning to soccer. “After my three-month moratorium on vacuuming and running ended, it was time to get back on my grind,” Krueger said. “I was still far from where I needed to be to rejoin the Red Stars, so I trained on my own until I was ready. I practiced with a local boys’ club team, played pickup with some of my teammates, and did double days designed by my trainer — but some of my most cherished memories from that time were when I’d workout in the basement of our home. I’d bring Caleb down there with me and let him hangout in his baby bouncer while I focused on getting my strength back. Watching him watch me as I sweated through reps was the greatest motivation I could have asked for, a living, breathing reminder that after everything I’d gone through, and for all the love I didn’t even know I was capable of giving to him, I had everything I needed to get to where I wanted to be. I could do this.”

13. Sam Kerr

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Footballer Sam Kerr won Best International Athlete, Women’s Soccer in 2022. In her book, she talked about how she approaches games. “I try to shift my focus to the task at hand – that one match or that one training session or that one goal – and stay focused on it. Staying in the present and focusing on that one thing isn’t easy, but it definitely helps. I just have to believe in what I’m doing and try to ignore any distracting, negative or outside factors that start to creep in. Using this mental tool to maintain this kind of attitude is a big factor in winning for me. I truly believe that.”

14. Lauren Holiday

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Former soccer player, Lauren Holiday, and her husband, NBA player Jrue Holiday, won the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award this year. She shared why she retired from her sport to ActiveKids.com. “As much as I love playing the sport of soccer, I also know that it's not my identity. I know that I was called to do other things and I'm not the type of person that can focus on multiple things at once. When I'm in soccer, I'm so focused on it that I feel guilty if I go a day without working out or trying to better my game. For me, it just came to the point that I wanted to do other things and I was ready. I've accomplished all that I wanted in soccer.”

15. Christen Press

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Christen Press helped accept this year’s Arthur Ashe Courage Award on behalf of the US Women’s Soccer Team. She shared how she prevents injuries in an interview with ESPN. "I haven't had many injuries and I know that's because I take care of my body and I do the things that I need to do to keep it strong. And I'm very grateful for the way that I feel when I play. I feel very powerful. I feel fast. I feel unstoppable and that's because of my body."