Weggemann, Robles win ESPYs in Los Angeles

14 Jul 2011 By IPC

USA’s Mallory Weggemann and Anthony Robles both won ESPY awards on the big stage Wednesday (13 July) at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles, USA.

Weggemann, a Minnesota swimmer paralyzed from the waist down, won the Best Female Athlete with a Disability award.

Robles, an amputee wrestler who won an NCAA Championship at Arizona this year, won the Best Male Athlete with a Disability award in addition to receiving the Jimmy V Award for perseverance.

While Weggemann has only been involved in Paralympic Swimming since 2008, she already holds 15 world records, 33 American records and won eight gold medals and one silver medal at the 2010 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Swimming World Championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

She’s currently on leave from from the University of Minnesota’s School of Journalism until after the London 2012 Paralympic Games, where she’s bound to make quite the splash.

Meanwhile, after finishing his senior season 36-0 on the mat and defeating the defending national champion in the 125-pound class NCAA finals, Robles received one of the biggest awards in a year in which everything has seemed to go right for him. The Jimmy V Award is named after former American basketball coach Jim Valvano, and it represents never giving up and overcoming high odds to achieve the unbelievable.

Robles, who was born with just one leg, gave an acceptance speech after receiving the award that focused on the theme of being “unstoppable.”

The ESPY awards are presented by the USA’s cable television network, ESPN, honoring the top individual and team athletic achievements from the past year.

For more information, check out www.espn.com/espys.