Special Olympian From Mt. Greenwood Wins ESPY Award

CHICAGO, IL - Tommy Shimoda, the gold medal-winning Special Olympian speed skater from Mount Greenwood has taken home one of the most prestigious awards in sports. He will be one of 25 athletes presented with an ESPY for the Arthur Ashe Courage Award when the top yearly national award show is aired Wednesday night.

Shimoda won the gold medal in the speed skating 500-meter race at the Special Olympics World Games in Austria in March and took home a bronze in the 777-meter race.

The ESPY is the latest honor in the career of Shimoda, a 24-year-old Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences alum who has competed with the Chicago Park District’s Special Recreation Program at Mt. Greenwood Park since he was eight.

"Tommy Shimoda is a true athlete through and through and is unbelievably deserving of his honorary ESPY award," said Joe Nagle, executive director of SCC/Special Olympics Chicago. "Whether he is competing at Mt. Greenwood Park or heading to the World Games, he gives everything he does 110%. He is talented, a team player and an exceptional athlete who works incredibly hard at every sport he plays."

The ESPY Awards show, hosted by future NFL Hall-of-Famer and two-time Super Bowl champion Peyton Manning this year, is a yearly award show that showcases the best of sports over the previous year. Best Team, Best Male and Female Athlete and Best Moment are among the most popular awards.

The Arthur Ashe Courage Award is also among the most coveted, with Caitlyn Jenner and Michael Sam having been selected in recent years. This year the award went posthumously to Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver, a driving force behind the creation of the Special Olympics organization that is now in more than 170 countries and has 4.2 million athletes.

Shimoda will be among 25 current Special Olympians to receive the award multiple reports indicate will be presented by former First Lady Michelle Obama. Timothy Shriver, Shriver’s son, will accept the award in person on behalf of his mother.

Shimoda received his ESPY during a celebration of the accomplishment held on Friday at Mt. Greenwood Park. Friends, coaches and other Special Olympians joined in on the celebration, DNAinfo Chicago reports.

Shimoda competes in more than 20 sports including basketball, softball, volleyball and hockey, according to a news release from Special Olympics Chicago. He said in a recent interview with ABC-Chicago that his next goal is to compete in the summer world games in gymnastics.

The ESPYs will air a 7 p.m. on Wednesday, July 12 on ABC.