Last night the biggest night in Sports occurred as the best athletes in the world gathered for the 2018 ESPY awards. The show was hosted by Danica Patrick from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
In a powerful moment during the show, Aly Raisman and 140 victims of Larry Nassar united on stage sharing the message of “we survive together.” In case you missed it, Larry Nassar was a doctor at Michigan State University and the USA gymnastics team who was found guilty of sexually abusing women and girls for years. He was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison.
A picture of courage.
These 141 women on stage tonight are representatives for all the survivors who spoke out about the abuses they endured by their team doctor. pic.twitter.com/HT4hsaZNuk
— ESPN (@espn) July 19, 2018
The group of women was presented with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award, which Aly Raisman spoke for after the victims and advocated for adults to take action when cases like this one are present as it can stop numerous occurrences of misconduct.
“To all the survivors out there, don’t let anyone rewrite your story. Your truth does matter. You matter. And you are not alone.”
Tonight, Aly Raisman and her sister survivors brought the #ESPYS audience to their feet. pic.twitter.com/0sVTI0wLUH
— ESPYS (@ESPYS) July 19, 2018
“The ripple effect of our actions, or inactions, can be enormous, spanning generations. Perhaps the greatest tragedy of this nightmare is that it could have been avoided,” Raisman said. “Whether you act or do nothing, you are shaping the world that we live in. Impacting others. All we needed was one adult to have the integrity stand between us and Larry Nassar.”
Patrick was the first woman to host the show and opened with a monologue that threw jokes at everyone from Ben Simmons to Odell Beckham Jr. to LeBron James. However, everyone wasn’t in favor of her performance as some viewers online and critics in the media felt it was delivered as a misstep.
Awards in the 26th edition of the show featured Utah Jazz rookie winning Best Breakthrough Athlete, Baker Mayfield as Best College Athlete, Houston Astros for Best Team, Nick Foles as best Championship Performance, Arike Ogunbowale’s buzzer-beater as the Best Play, LeBron James as Best Basketball player and Tom Brady as Best NFL Player.
Check out the full list of award winners here.
