Shaun White and Jamie Anderson at the 2012 ESPYS

The 2012 ESPYs (Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly) went down last night, Thursday, July 11, in Los Angeles. Four snowboarders were nominated for best action sports athlete in both the men and women divisions: Shaun White, Travis Rice, Kelly Clark and Jamie Anderson.

Shaun white won best male action sports athlete, for the for the fifth consecutive year, ousting fellow snowboarder Travis Rice, surfer Kelly Slater and motocross star Ryan Villopoto for the title. As we don’t know the exact votes we can only image it was a close one as all four athletes had major accomplishments last year.

Shaun White, coming off a 2011 win at summer X Games, most notably took the 2012 winter X Games halfpipe title with the first ever 100. Travis Rice, named Snowboarder Magazine’s Rider of the Year and National Geographic’s Adventurer of the Year, premiered his much-anticipated movie The Art of Flight and took snowboard competitions to the next level with the Red Bull Supernatural. Kelly Slater dominated the ASP World Tour and won his eleventh title at the age of 39, and Ryan Villopoto, being motorcross’ most dominant rider, clinched his second AMA Motocross championship four races early, an AMA first.

For the ladies it was Jamie Anderson who would take home her first ESPY award. She had tough competition from fellow snowboarder Kelly Clark, skier Kaya Turski and surfer Carissa Moore. All four ladies had phenomenal seasons last year.

Jamie Anderson won the overall TTR slopestyle title (her third), overall Burton Open Title, and both winter X Games gold medals with the highest score ever posted in Aspen. Kelly Clark won her second overall TTR halfpipe title and both Winter X Games titles. Kaya Turski shook up the ski world by winning the Dew Tour slopestyle crown and both winter X Games titles (her third in both). Lastly, Carissa Moore became the youngest woman to win the ASP World Tour title.

Congrats to all the athletes for dominating their respective sports. We look forward to what these superb athletes will accomplish next season.