Liam Hendriks says he pitched 2022 season with cancer

LOS ANGELES –

Chicago White Sox reliever Liam Hendriks told the ESPYS crowd that he pitched with non-Hodgkin lymphoma for much of the 2022 season before being diagnosed with an advanced stage of the disease.

He accepted the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance Wednesday night on the show honoring the past year’s top sports moments and top athletes. The 34-year-old Australian was declared cancer-free at the end of April and returned to the mound a month later.

“That was an eye opener. I didn’t feel too many symptoms but I had some bumps around. It just shows you the power of the mind. When you think there’s nothing wrong and you believe you can do anything “You can do anything,” said Hendriks.

“I was throwing 100 miles an hour going through stage 4 lymphoma and then came back after eight rounds of chemotherapy and four rounds of immunotherapy and was able to go out and throw 96 miles an hour. That’s not who I am physically That’s all this, that’s all mental.”

Patrick Mahomes was honored as the best sports athlete for men, while skier Mikaela Shiffrin received the honor for women’s sports.

The Kansas City Chiefs quarterback has won two Super Bowls in his five seasons and was named MVP of the game each time, including last February. He will be 28 in September.

“It was an incredible season. There were a lot of ups, a lot of downs,” said Mahomes. “I appreciate my teammates, my coaches, the guys who are here. I’m going back to camp next Tuesday, so this is a great prize. 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 Ingemar Stenmark’s record for most such wins by any skier. She went on to win an 88th cup race, as well as the overall season title.

“This season has been absolutely incredible and there was a lot of talk about records and it got me thinking, why is a record important anyway?” said Shiffrin at the Dolby Theater 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 provided the opening monologue in his first major public appearance since joining ESPN in May.

The show did not have a celebrity host as a result of the Hollywood writers’ strike. McAfee issued a series of hints that comedian Kevin Hart was set for the gig, but that Hart chose to support the Writers Guild of America.

An ESPN spokeswoman said a production team worked with presenters on their opening remarks.