Ryan Dungey – 2016 ESPY Award Winner
For the second-straight year, Red Bull KTM’s Ryan Dungey kept motorcycle racing at the forefront of the ESPY Awards.
During the ceremony Wednesday in Los Angeles, the KTM SX-F450 pilot claimed Best Action Sports Male Athlete. This was also after ESPN announced that a naked Dungey would appear in its The Magazine’s “Body Issue,” providing the two-time Supercross Champion with some extra fame.
This year the 26-year-old Minnesota native earned the fan-voted award over freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy, skateboarders Nyjah Huston and Pedro Barros and snowboarder Mark McMorris.
The ESPY awards began in 1993, but motorcycle competitors were far off the map until Travis Pastrana changed this in 2007.The year before, Pastrana awed the world when he landed a double backflip at the 2006 X Games, helping him win ahead of two other motorcycle nominees – Ricky Carmichael and James Stewart.
Following his second-consecutive 450 Supercross World Championship in April, Dungey sustained a back injury at Round 3 of the AMA Pro Motocross Championship where he is currently sidelined in order to heal the injury.