# Best Record-Breaking Performance ESPY Award

The Best Record-Breaking Performance ESPY Award has been presented since 2001 to the amateur or professional sportsperson, irrespective of nationality or sport contested, adjudged to have, in a single play, game, or season, completed the best record-breaking (and -setting) performance, irrespective of the nature of the record broken.
Between 2001 and 2004, the award voting panel comprised variously fans; sportswriters and broadcasters, sports executives, and retired sportspersons, termed collectively experts; and ESPN personalities, but balloting thereafter has been undertaken exclusively by fans over the Internet from amongst choices nominated by the ESPN Select Nominating Committee.
Through the 2001 iteration of the ESPY Awards, ceremonies were conducted in February of each year to honor achievements over the previous calendar year; awards presented thereafter are conferred in June and reflect performance from the June previous.
In 2024, Caitlin Clark became the first female athlete to win this award.

## List of winners

Best Record-Breaking Performance ESPY Award winners :
| Year of award | Image | Athlete | Nation of citizenship | Team | Competition, governing body, or league | Sport | Record set | Previous record-holder | Ref(s) |
| 2001 | | Pete Sampras | United States | — | ATP Tour | Tennis | Total career men's singles Grand Slam titles (13). This record has since been surpassed by Roger Federer. | Roy Emerson (12) | |
| 2002 | | Tiger Woods | United States | — | PGA Tour | Golf | Consecutive men's major championships won (Four—the 2000 U.S. Open, The Open Championship, and PGA Championship and the 2001 Masters Tournament [known as the consecutive Grand Slam]) | Ben Hogan (three, in 1953) | |
| 2003 | | Emmitt Smith | United States | Dallas Cowboys | National Football League (NFL) | American football | Total career NFL rushing yards (17,162 at the close of the league's 2002 season, with 975 tallied therein) | American Walter Payton (16,726, across the 13 seasons between 1975 and 1987, inclusive) | |
| 2004 | | Éric Gagné | Canada | Los Angeles Dodgers | Major League Baseball (MLB) | Baseball | Consecutive saves converted in a single MLB regular season (55 across the league's 2003 season) | Tom Gordon (46, in 1998) | |
| 2005 | | Peyton Manning | United States | Indianapolis Colts | National Football League (NFL) | American football | Total single-season NFL passing touchdowns (49 in the league's 2004 season) | Dan Marino (48 in the 1984 season) | |
| 2006 | | Shaun Alexander | United States | Seattle Seahawks | National Football League (NFL) | American football | Total single-season NFL rushing touchdowns (27 in the league's 2005 season) | Priest Holmes (23, in 2003) | |
| 2007 | | LaDainian Tomlinson | United States | San Diego Chargers | National Football League (NFL) | American football | Total single-season NFL rushing touchdowns (28 in the league's 2006 season) | Shaun Alexander (27, in 2005) | ǂ |
| 2008 | | Brett Favre | United States | Green Bay Packers | National Football League (NFL) | American football | Total career NFL passing touchdowns (442 at the close of the 2007 season, with 28 tallied therein) | Dan Marino (420, across the 17 seasons between 1983 and 1999, inclusive) | |
| 2009 | | Michael Phelps | United States | — | Olympic Games | Swimming | Total gold medals achieved at a single Games of the Olympiad (eight in the 2008 Summer Olympics) | Mark Spitz (seven, at the 1972 Summer Olympics) | |
| 2010 | | John Isner vs. Nicolas Mahut | United States and France | — | Wimbledon | Tennis | Longest match in tennis history, lasting 11 hours, 5 minutes; Isner defeated Mahut 70–68 in the fifth set of the 1st round match. | Fabrice Santoro vs. Arnaud Clément fourth round match at the 2004 French Open lasting 6 hours, 33 minutes. | |
| 2011 | | Rory McIlroy | Northern Ireland | — | U.S. Open | Golf | In winning the U.S. Open, McIlroy broke tournament records for the lowest 72-hole score, both in total strokes (268) and in relation to par (−16). | 72-hole score (272): Jim Furyk, 2003; Tiger Woods, 2000; Lee Janzen, 1993; Jack Nicklaus, 1980. To-par (−12): Woods, 2000. | |
| 2012 | | Drew Brees | United States | New Orleans Saints | National Football League (NFL) | American football | Brees threw for 5,476 yards in 2011–12, breaking the NFL single-season record. | Dan Marino (5,084 yards in 1984) | |
| 2013 | | Michael Phelps (2) | United States | — | Olympic Games | Swimming | Phelps became the most decorated Olympian in history, finishing the London Olympics with a total of 22 medals. | Larisa Latynina (19 medals, 1956–1964, representing the Soviet Union) | |
| 2014 | | Peyton Manning (2) | United States | Denver Broncos | National Football League (NFL) | American football | Manning set single-season NFL records for both passing yardage (5,477) and touchdown passes (55) in the 2013 season. | Yardage: Drew Brees (5,476 yards in 2011) TDs: Tom Brady (50 in 2007) | |
| 2015 | | Peyton Manning (3) | United States | Denver Broncos | National Football League (NFL) | American football | Manning set the NFL record for career touchdown passes (530 at the end of the 2014 season). | Brett Favre (touchdown passes 1991–2010) | |
| 2016 | | Stephen Curry | United States | Golden State Warriors | National Basketball Association (NBA) | Basketball | Curry set the record for most three-point field goals in a season with 402. | Curry had the previous record, 286 in the 2014–15 season. | |
| 2017 | | Michael Phelps (3) | United States | — | Olympic Games | Swimming | Phelps extended his own record of being the most decorated Olympian during the Rio Olympics in 2016 with a total of 28 Olympic medals. He now has 23 Gold, 3 Silver, and 2 Bronze Olympic Medals. | Phelps previously held the record when he broke it in the London 2012 Olympics where he finished with a grand total of 22 Olympic medals. | |
| 2018 | | Roger Federer | Switzerland | — | Wimbledon | Tennis | Most Wimbledon Gentlemen's Singles championships all time with 8 | Federer was previously tied with William Renshaw & Pete Sampras with 7 | |
| 2019 | | Drew Brees (2) | United States | New Orleans Saints | National Football League (NFL) | American football | Brees set the record for most passing yards (71,940) | Peyton Manning | |
| 2020 | Not awarded due to the COVID-19 pandemic | Not awarded due to the COVID-19 pandemic | Not awarded due to the COVID-19 pandemic | Not awarded due to the COVID-19 pandemic | Not awarded due to the COVID-19 pandemic | Not awarded due to the COVID-19 pandemic | Not awarded due to the COVID-19 pandemic | Not awarded due to the COVID-19 pandemic | Not awarded due to the COVID-19 pandemic |
| 2021 | | Russell Westbrook | United States | Washington Wizards | National Basketball Association (NBA) | Basketball | Westbrook set the record for most career triple-doubles (182) | Oscar Robertson (181) | |
| 2022 | | Stephen Curry (2) | United States | Golden State Warriors | National Basketball Association (NBA) | Basketball | Curry set the record for most career three-point field goals (3,117) | Ray Allen (2,973) | |
| 2023 | | LeBron James | United States | Los Angeles Lakers | National Basketball Association (NBA) | Basketball | James set the record for most NBA career points (38,652) | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387) | |
| 2024 | | Caitlin Clark | United States | Iowa Hawkeyes | National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) | Basketball | Clark set the record for most NCAA career points scored (men's and women's) (3,951) | Pete Maravich (3,667) | |