Boxer Kim Clavel Accepts Pat Tillman Award at the ESPYs: 'I Was Born' to Help People

Said Kim Clavel, "My need to help is bigger than my scared."

Kim Clavel
Photo: Kim Clavel/ Instagram

Boxing champion Kim Clavel is honored to now be among the many illustrious athletes to have won the Pat Tillman Award for Service.

Clavel, 29, was given the ESPY Award after she decided to leave boxing and return to work as a nurse in March amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Actress Halle Berry introduced Clavel, explaining, "Kim is a fighter by trade, and all this pandemic did was offer her a new opponent."

Of caring for people, Clavel said during a video biography that aired on Sunday, "I was born to do it."

"I worked in the COVID zone," she explained of working in elder care facilities in Montreal during the pandemic. "It's really hard, when everything gets dark, they think about their life ... I sing, I talk with them and maybe make them smile. To see these people die alone, without their family — for me it's not humanity. They need humanity."

Said Clavel, "My need to help is bigger than my scared."

"It is an honor to receive the Pat Tillman Award on behalf of all the health care workers battling COVID-19 on the frontlines," Clavel told ESPN ahead of her acceptance speech. "Although recently I have pursued my dream of boxing, helping people is my passion and I'm proud to be able to make a difference."

The Pat Tillman Award is named after the former Arizona Cardinals star who left the NFL to serve in the military in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He was killed in Afghanistan in 2004.

The ESPY Awards — hosted by Seattle Seahawks star Russell Wilson, USWNT captain Megan Rapinoe and WNBA player Sue Bird — are being held remotely on Sunday, June 21.

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