Chinese-American skier Eileen Gu Ailing has been nominated for an Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly (ESPY) Award in this year’s “best athlete, women’s action sports” category. The ESPY award winners are chosen via fan votes after the event’s select nominating committee vet the candidates. Last year’s edition was held virtually, but this time it returns with spectators under a New York City government-sanctioned Covid-19-restricted format on July 10. Earlier this year, Gu became the first Chinese freeskier to win multiple golds at the FIS Snowboard and Freeski World Championships in March and the first Chinese to win at the X Games (and the only rookie in history to win three medals) in January. She is largely considered the country’s biggest medal threat and event poster girl for the upcoming 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics , having announced aged 15 that she would be switching from the US national team to represent China at next year’s Games. “Got nominated for my first ESPY!!! Feeling honoured and incredible grateful to @ESPN and all of my supporters. Go vote for me … under “Best Female Action Sports Athletes”... n tell ur friends n family to click my name too ;),” the US-born 17-year-old said on social media. Joining Gu in the same category is former US teammate Chloe Kim, who won a 2018 Winter Games gold medal in snowboarding in her parents’ native South Korea and is the reigning halfpipe champion in four major events. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Eileen Gu 🖤 (@eileen_gu_) There are several Asian athletes nominmated at the coveted sports awards, the most prominent being Japanese-Haitian tennis star Naomi Osaka, nominated for all-the encompassing “best athlete, women’s sports” award. Australian footballer Sam Kerr was nominated for “best international athlete, women’s soccer”, while South Korean golfing trio Ko Jinyoung, Park Inbee and Kim Seiyoung are in the running for “best athlete, women’s golf”. In the men’s categories, Japanese baseball player Shohei Ohtani was nominated for “best MLB player” for his record-breaking season with the Los Angeles Angels, while fellow countryman Hideki Matsuyama is in contention for “best athlete, men’s golf” after winning Japan’s first Masters in April. Japanese snowboarder Yuto Totsuka was nominated for “best athlete, men’s action sports”. Individual categories aside, there are team sport, athlete with disability, performance, moment, and sponsor awards to be handed out. Legendary US golfer Tiger Woods has won the most ESPYs in the award’s history with 21.