LOS ANGELES — Chicago White Sox reliever Liam Hendriks told the ESPY Awards audience that he pitched much of the 2022 season with non-Hodgkin lymphoma before being diagnosed with an advanced stage of the disease.
He accepted the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance on Wednesday night at the show honoring the past year’s top sports moments and athletes. The 34-year-old Australian was declared cancer-free in late April and returned to the mound a month later.
“That was an eye-opener,” Hendriks said. “I didn’t feel too many symptoms but I had some lumps around. It just shows you the power of the mind. When you don’t think anything’s wrong and you believe that, you can do anything.
“I was throwing 100 miles per hour while going through Stage 4 lymphoma and then coming back after doing eight rounds of chemotherapy and four rounds of immunotherapy and was able to get out there and throw 96 miles per hour. That isn’t physically who I am. That’s all this, that’s all mental.”
Patrick Mahomes was honored as best men’s athlete, while skier Mikaela Shiffrin received the women’s honor.
The Kansas City Chiefs quarterback has won two Super Bowls in five seasons and was named MVP of the game both times, including this past February. He turns 28 in September.
“It was an incredible season. There was many ups, many downs,” Mahomes said. “I appreciate my teammates, my coaches, the guys that are here. I go back to camp next Tuesday, so this is a great award. But we’re going to do this thing again, we’re going to keep this thing rolling.”
Shiffrin won her 87th World Cup race in March, breaking the mark set by Ingemar Stenmark for the most wins by any skier. She went on to win an 88th race as well as the overall season title.
“This season was absolutely incredible and there was a lot of talk about records and it got me thinking, why is a record actually important?” Shiffrin said at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. “I just feel like it’s not important to break records or reset records. It’s important to set the tone for the next generation, to inspire them.”
Sports talk host Pat McAfee handled the opening monologue in his first major public appearance since joining ESPN in May.
The show didn’t have a celebrity host as a result of the Hollywood writers strike. McAfee offered a series of hints that comedian Kevin Hart had been set for the gig but that Hart instead chose to support the Writers Guild of America.
An ESPN spokeswoman said a production team worked with presenters on their introductory remarks.
