Some of the most deserving call Chicagoland home. The local athletes are redefining what leadership looks like.
Billy Jean King has long stood in the gap for others, advocating, raising awareness and sparking change.
Each year, in her name, a leadership ESPY is awarded nationally and regionally. This year, Illinois has three recipients, two in the Chicago area. The young athletes are determined to use sports as a platform to lead with immediate impact.
Three years ago, Evanston's Olivia Ohlson was honored with her first regional ESPY award, using sports as a platform to impact her community.
"Ii really like the sort of team spirit and sense of responsibility that sports gives you," Ohlson said. "I think it's just a place for kids to get to know each other and kind of learn what sharing looks like."
That is the mission behind her nonprofit Diversify Golf, and what she continues to do serving with Girls Play Sports, giving kids of color, specifically girls, access to sports that have traditionally excluded them.
"I was looking to fill that void but also take it a step further and go places that I believed would meet kids where they were already," Ohlson said. "It's really just chasing a feeling of supporting my community, seeing the impact that is has on individuals that I meet with."
A few hundred miles east at Cornell University, Park Ridge native Emily Pape is using her Division 1 basketball platform for another urgent cause: the environment.
"I had really watched a couple documentaries... and was very moved at the way that humans kind of treat the earth," Pape said.
While playing basketball for the Big Red, Pape joined Eco Athletes, a nonprofit mobilizing athletes to take climate action, and she founded Cornell Student Athletes for Sustainability, now over 150 members strong.
"I'm very passionate about this... we're athletes trying to make the world a better place," Pape said.
For their brave, groundbreaking work, both young women were honored to receive the Billie Jean King Foundation Youth Leadership Award, celebrating how their work as sports leaders so strongly reflects her work.
"It's just clear how passionate she is, and it's a real passion, and I think that to be recognized for something like this that so strongly aligns with who she is as a person is really incredible," Pape said.
"Billie Jean King was a part of trailblazing that path, and I just hope to kind of be one of the many people riding that wave," Ohlson said.
The girls are among 20 regional winners nationwide who receive either a college scholarship or a grant. Both of the girls are planning to use their award to pour back into the causes they care most about.
The 2025 ESPYS will be broadcast live on ABC on Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET / PT from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.