Los Angeles, CA – Olympic gold medalist alpine skier Lindsey Vonn and fellow gold medalist snowboarder Kelly Clark comprise an unprecedented half of the Female Athlete of the Year ballot for the 2011 ESPY Awards, which air live Wednesday, July 13 at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN.

The ESPYs are determined entirely by popular vote. The Athlete of the Year category is the highest individual honor for women with Vonn as the incumbent. Her 2010 victory was the first time a snow sports athlete had won the top honor in the ESPYs’ 18 year history. Vonn and Clark are up against WNBA star Lauren Jackson and NCAA hoop standout Maya Moore.

Vonn, the 2010 Olympic gold medalist for downhill who resides in Vail, Colo., rocketed through last winter to capture three more Audi FIS Alpine World Cup titles to bring her career total to 12 – more than any other American skier – male or female. She also boosted her career World Cup win total to 41, also a U.S. record.

West Dover, Vt.’s Clark paved the way for snowboarding in 2002 when she became the first athlete to win the ESPY for Best Action Sports Athlete after winning the Olympic gold medal for halfpipe. Two years later the award was split into a male and female category. She is also nominated for Female Action Sport Athlete along with Canadian freeskier Sarah Burke.

Clark’s record-breaking winter included a clean sweep of the Burton New Zealand Open, the O’Neil Evolution, the Burton European Open, the Killington Dew Tour, X Games in Aspen, the Burton Canadian Open, the Snowbasin Dew Tour, the Mammoth Grand Prix, the Burton U.S. Open and the European X Games. She placed an exclamation point on the 10-win season by landing a 1080 in the X Games at Aspen – a first in women’s snowboarding history.

Fellow snow sport athletes up for 2011 ESPYs include two-time Olympic gold medalist Shaun White, of Carlsbad, Calif.,who is nominated for Best Male Action Sport Athlete along with French freeskier Kevin Rolland. Super G World Champion and four-time Paralympian Chris Devlin-Young, of Campton, N.H., is up for Male Athlete with a Disability, while teammate and double 2010 Paralympic gold medalist Alana Nichols, of Farmington, N.M., is nominated for the women’s honor.

Vote for your favorite sports star now at http://espn.go.com/espys/#!/voting/. Voting closes July 9 at midnight ET.