As word spread in the news that former Olympic track star Bruce Jenner has decided he is now a transgender woman named Caitlyn, ESPN announced that it would be honoring Jenner with the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at this year’s ESPY awards in July.
ESPN describes past winners of the award as individuals whose “contributions transcend sports.”
Past honorees include coach Jim Valvano, who created The V Foundation for Cancer Research; Pat Tillman, who left the NFL to serve in the military and gave his life in Afghanistan; four passengers who lost their lives September 11 on United Flight 93 (2002); and former South African president Nelson Mandela.
In 2014, ESPN switched directions and honored Michael Sam, who last year became the first openly gay football player drafted into the NFL when he was selected by the St. Louis Rams in the seventh round.
This year, they appear to be continuing that trend by recognizing Jenner, even while there are countless other athletes who have displayed the kind of courage that truly does “transcend” sports.
One such athlete, Noah Galloway, can be found right here in Alabama.
Last year Galloway told his story on the Ellen Show.
“I was going to UAB and I dropped out of school to enlist (in the Army) and I was in the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003,” he explained. “I went back for a second deployment and about three months into it, hit a roadside bomb. I don’t remember any of it, woke up six days later — it was Christmas Day — I was at Walter Reed and, you know, because I had just woken up, it was my mom who was standing next to the bed to tell me that I’d lost my arm and my leg.”
Ellen asked him how he responded to that, and he admitted that he had a very difficult time coping.
“There was a lot of anger,” he said. “You know, I was a very physical person. And being injured I thought all of that was over and I didn’t know what I was going to do with myself. And there was a lot of depression I went through… That took a few years of being miserable, and I hid it from my friends and family. I’d go out in public and say everything was fine, but then I’d sit at home and I would drink a lot, and I just kind of kept it to myself. It was hard in the beginning.”
But it was Galloway’s return to working out, which he’d been passionate about prior to his injury, that helped him get back on track.
“I joined a 24-hour gym so I could go in at like 2 in the morning,” he explained. “I was embarrassed of the shape I was in, my injury, everything. I had to figure out new ways to workout, what I was going to do. Then as I started progressing, getting stronger, healthier and fitter, then I felt ok to go in the middle of the day. I started running races. I started with a 5k, 10k, obstacle course races, marathons — anything I could do to push myself. I was hooked.”
Since then, Galloway has also delivered stirring performances on Dancing with the Stars and launched the No Excuses Charitable fund, whose mission is to “empower injured veterans through support of physical rehabilitative actives.”
Serving your country. Overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Giving back.
That’s what courage looks like.
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— Cliff Sims (@Cliff_Sims) December 3, 2014
