Jamie Whitmore, the remarkable star who won one XTERRA world championship and five XTERRA U.S. national titles before a rare form of cancer cut short her pro career in 2008, put an exclamation point on her sporting comeback as a world champion paracyclist last night as she received an ESPY Award as the Best Female Athlete with a Disability.

Whitmore posted am ecstatic note of thanks on her Facebook page: "Words cannot describe how I am feeling right now! Many thanks to all who voted for me. I am grateful and humbled. I am also thankful for the journey God has placed me on... And to all of my friends/teammates/family thank you from the bottom of my heart. You are the reason I won tonight!"

Whitmore was chosen among five nominees for the category just six years after a virulent form of cancer called spindle cell carcinoma forced doctors to remove her left gluteus and clean out cancer cells around her sciatic nerve.

Three years after the onset of her cancer, Whitmore was able to ride with her husband on a tandem bicycle. The next year she won the 12.18 mile time trial in the C-3 category at the USA Cycling Paracyling Nationals. The last two years, Whitmore won several national and world Paracycling titles in time trial and pursuit events.

Whitmore thus becomes the fourth triathlete or former triathlete to win an ESPY Award. In 2005, Jim MacLaren, a triathlete and marathon runner who was rendered a quadriplegic after two horrible vehicular accidents, won the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYs. In 2006, Sarah Reinertsen won an ESPY as the Best Female Athlete with a Disability. Jason Lester, who lost the use of his right arm when he was hit by a car at the age of 12 but carried on to become the first disabled athlete to complete the Ultraman World championship, won the 2009 ESPY Award for the Best Male Athlete with a Disability.