Saturday marked an important night for the sporting world, as some of the biggest names in the industry came out to celebrate the 2021 Espys.
The annual event (the acronym stands for Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Award) recognises and celebrates athletic achievements by both teams and individuals.
Owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the event was hosted remotely in 2020. However, this year, the event upped the glamour, with celebrities across the sport and entertainment fields making an appearance. The event was held at The Rooftop at Pier 17 in New York City, with Anthony Mackie, of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier fame, as the host.
Vampire Diaries's Nina Dobrev, Alexandria Daddario, Kane Brown and Dixie D’Amelio were some of the celebrities to grace the event
For a look at the celebrities on the red carpet, scroll through the gallery above.
This year, Manchester United and England star Marcus Rashford was the recipient of the Pat Tillman Award for service. Rashford, who has spoken about how he relied on free school meals as a child, fundraised millions of pounds during the pandemic to feed children in England. As Rashford is currently playing on the England national team in the Euro 2020 final, he wasn’t able to accept his award in person. However, he did appear through a virtual clip where he offered his thanks.
Meanwhile, tennis star Naomi Osaka make her first public appearance since withdrawing from the French Open and Wimbledon. The young star accepted the award for Best Athlete Women’s Sports.
Osaka, who recently wrote an article on mental health in Time magazine’s latest issue, gave a speech at the event. “I just want to say, I really love you guys and this is my first Espys so it’s really cool to be surrounded by all these incredible athletes. I think all of you guys are really cool and I watch some of you on TV so it’s really surreal to be here and yeah, thank you so much and I really appreciate it.”
