Colorado athletes will be well represented at the 2025 ESPYS

The state of Colorado has a plethora of athletes who have been nominated for ESPYS this year, and some of them have great chances to bring home some hardware on Wednesday night

BY TRENT FINNEGAN

Jul 15, 2025, 9:11 AM Updated: 9:18 am

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The 2025 ESPYS are here, with the annual sports awards show set to air at 6:00 p.m. MDT time on Wednesday evening. For Denver sports fans, there are a ton of athletes who play in Colorado that they’ve been cheering on that are up for the awards, and some of them are in a very good position to bring home some hardware and represent the Centennial State.

There wasn’t a single Colorado athlete who won an ESPY in 2024, but there is a good chance that fortune changes this time around. What athletes are up for what awards?

Best Comeback Athlete

This award is the best shot for a Colorado athlete to win one, as three of the four nominees have ties to the state. The Colorado Avalanche’s Gabriel Landeskog, the USWNT’s Mallory Swanson and skier Lindsay Vonn are all up for the award, with gymnast Suni Lee as the fourth nominee.

Landeskog was arguably the best story in the NHL last season, as he returned to the ice for the Avalanche in the playoffs after an absence that lasted over 1,000 days due to two knee surgeries. He went through countless hours of rehab and setbacks to return from a cartilage transplant that no NHL player had come back from before and was able to make a solid impact for the Avs in the playoffs. In five games in the postseason, he had one goal and four assists while being a +4 on the ice as he proved that he still had some juice left in his legs.

🚨 GABRIEL LANDESKOG GOAL! GABRIEL LANDESKOG GOAL! 🚨

His first goal in the NHL since June 20, 2022 puts the @Avalanche up 3-0 in this one! #StanleyCup

🇺🇸: @NHL_On_TNT (TBS) & @SportsonMax ➡️ https://t.co/4TuyIATi3T
🇨🇦: @Sportsnet or stream on Sportsnet+ ➡️… pic.twitter.com/w7UBXIWFpM

— NHL (@NHL) April 27, 2025

Swanson tore the patellar tendon in her left knee back in 2023 and had to undergo surgery to get it repaired. Just a week and a half after the operation, she suffered an infection in the same spot, an incident that required emergency surgery and held her out of the 2023 World Cup, which the United States was eliminated in the Round of 16 in.

After an 11-month absence from the sport, she was able to make a return for the 2024 Paris Olympics and was a key factor in the U.S. bringing home the gold medal. In six matches, the forward scored four goals and tacked on another two assists as the USWNT won all six contests.

While Swanson did all that hard work to make it back to the pitch, she is now out of action again, but not because of injury. She announced back on May 7 that she is pregnant and expecting her first child with Chicago Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson.

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A post shared by Mallory Pugh Swanson (@malpugh)

Vonn, widely regarded as the best female skier in the history of the sport, has endured countless knee surgeries throughout her career, the most recent being a full knee replacement. She had been retired for five years, but announced that she was returning to the sport in 2024, and at 40, became the oldest woman to stand on the podium at a World Cup event after finishing in second place in the Super-G event, 20 years after her first win in a World Cup event.

Best Collegiate Athlete – Men’s Sports

Colorado’s Travis Hunter is the nominee for this award after bringing home the Heisman Trophy to Boulder for the second time in program history.

The two-way phenom played 1,548 snaps in the 2024 season (including plays that were called back for penalties), 87% of the total offensive snaps and 83% of the total defensive snaps. He finished the year with 96 receptions for 1,258 yards and 15 receiving touchdowns (most in CU history), plus another touchdown on the ground. On the defensive side of the ball, he wrapped up the year with 36 tackles, 25 solo and one for a loss, four interceptions for 65 return yards, 11 pass breakups and one forced fumble.

Four minutes and 36 seconds of Travis Hunter highlights… for no particular reason at all.#Big12FB | @CUBuffsFootball pic.twitter.com/Va6AmjHD5Z

— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) December 7, 2024

His talent and consistency on both sides of the ball was something that college football had never seen before, and he was rightfully awarded with the sport’s most prestigious award. He has continued to collect more hardware for Colorado even after going to the NFL in April’s draft, and this is another chance for him to do so.

He is up against Duke’s Cooper Flagg, Oklahoma State’s Wyatt Hendrickson (wrestling) and Cornell’s CJ Kirst (lacrosse).

Best NFL Player

The Broncos’ Pat Surtain II is up for the ESPY for the top NFL player, and he is the only defensive player on the list after winning the league’s Defensive Player of the Year Award last season.

In 2024, Surtain allowed 37 receptions, made four interceptions, and held quarterbacks to a 58.9 passer rating on 62 times he was targeted this season, as calculated by SportRadar.com. The worst QB in the league’s rating is Anthony Richardson at 61.6, meaning Surtain turns everyone throwing his way into the worst passer in the league when they throw over there. Pro Football Focus also rated PS2 as the best-graded cornerback in the NFL this past fall.

100-YARD PICK SIX FOR PAT SURTAIN II 💯

📺 FOX pic.twitter.com/8nnNccBMBI

— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) October 6, 2024

He was also recently hanging out with NBA legend Michael Jordan, showing that great athletes are recognizing the true greatness of Surtain.

He is up against Buffalo’s Josh Allen, Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson and Philadelphia’s Saquon Barkley. Since Surtain is the only defensive player on the list, it’s going to be tough for him to win the award just because of the quarterback/offense bias, but he’s still very deserving of his nomination.

Best NHL Player

The Colorado Avalanche have another player up for an ESPY, and this time it’s defenseman Cale Makar. Makar won his second Norris Trophy in four years for being the league’s top defenseman as he helped lead the Avalanche to an eighth consecutive playoff berth.

The Canadian became the first defenseman to score 30 goals in the regular season since 2009 and the ninth overall. He led all defensemen in points (92), goals (30) and assists (62), making this second-straight year the Canadian tallied at least 90 points. He also joined another elite club this year, becoming just the sixth defensemen in the history of the NHL to hit the 90-point mark in multiple seasons.

Cale Makar has 15 points in eight games.

Yeah, you read that right. 🤯 pic.twitter.com/LSTbmiuhCn

— NHL (@NHL) October 25, 2024

While his performance in the postseason wasn’t up to his usual standards, he was still elite in the regular season, and was rightly recognized for it. He is up against Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl, Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck and Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov.

Best NBA Player

The Denver Nuggets are getting in on the action here with Nikola Jokic up for this ESPY. He won this award back in 2023 after he led the Nuggets to the franchise’s first championship, but didn’t win the award in any of the three seasons that he won the MVP.

Jokic became the first player in NBA history to be a top-three performer in points, rebounds, assists and steals per game. He finished third in points (29.6 per game) and rebounds (12.7 per game) and second in assists (10.2 per game) and steals (1.8 per game). No player in NBA history had ever finished in the top 10 of all four categories and Jokic ended the season in the top three. He went toe-to-toe with the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder in the playoffs before losing in seven games and proved that he can compete with anybody no matter who the other four players on the court are surrounding him.

He also put up the first 30/20/20 game in NBA history.

31 POINTS.
21 REBOUNDS.
22 ASSISTS.

THE FIRST-EVER 30+ PT, 20+ REB, 20+ AST GAME IN NBA HISTORY 🚨

NIKOLA JOKIĆ IS TRULY SOMETHING SPECIAL. 🌟 pic.twitter.com/I982bZePiF

— NBA (@NBA) March 8, 2025

He is up against Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is the likely favorite to bring it home, Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo and Boston’s Jayson Tatum.

While it’s not likely that all these athletes bring home some hardware, there is a great chance that at least one will be able to rep Colorado and the Mile High City with a victory on Wednesday night.