Best Male Action Sports Athlete ESPY Award is an annual award honoring the achievements of a male athlete from the world of action sports . It was first awarded as part of the ESPY Awards in 2004 after the non-gender-specific Best Action Sports Athlete ESPY Award was presented the previous two years ( with American snowboarder Shaun White receiving the 2003 award ) . The Best Male Action Sports Athlete ESPY Award trophy , created by sculptor Lawrence Nowlan , is presented to the male adjudged to be the best action sports athlete in a given calendar year . Balloting for the award is undertaken by fans over the Internet from between three and five choices selected by the ESPN Select Nominating Committee , which is composed of a panel of experts . It is conferred in July to reflect performance and achievement over the preceding twelve months . The inaugural winner of the Best Male Action Sports Athlete ESPY Award at the 2004 awards was freestyle BMX rider Ryan Nyquist . During 1997 and 2003 , Nyquist won eleven out of eighteen available freestyle BMX medals at the X Games . He became the first freestyle BMX rider to be nominated for , and thus the first to win , an ESPY Award . The 2006 winner of the Best Male Action Sports Athlete ESPY Award was Shaun White . He was nominated a further five consecutive times between the 2008 and 2012 ceremonies , all of which he won , making him the athlete with the most victories with six . The two other athletes to have earned successive awards are street skateboarder Nyjah Huston and motocross rider Ryan Dungey . Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris became the first non-American to win the accolade in 2017 by earning three medals at that year 's X Games in Minneapolis . Snowboarders are the most successful sportspeople ( with seven awards ) , followed by motocross riders and street skateboarders ( three ) . The 2019 holder of the award was Huston who won the 2018 Street League Skateboarding World Championship and a gold medal in street skateboarding at the X Games Minneapolis 2018
2019 holder
2019 ESPY Awards
Best Male Action Sports Athlete ESPY Award