Taekwondo star Khalifeh, who has won 20 gold medals in national and international competitions, will received the award after training thousands of women in self-defence.

She created SheFighter, the first women-only self-defence school in the Middle East.

SheFighter has studios in more than 35 countries and has trained more than 18,000 women since 2012.

A posthumous award will be presented to Tyler Trent, an American student who inspired sports fans during his cancer battle.

Trent, who raised thousands of dollars to support cancer research, died in January.

The Sports Humanitarian team of the year finalists are National Hockey League side Anaheim Ducks, the Chicago Fire and New York City football clubs from Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball side Los Angeles Dodgers.

Grammy winner Ciara will host the event which precedes the Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly (ESPYS) Awards, which honours athletes, teams and sports industry professionals who use the power of sport to make a difference.

Anthem Foundation, Burton Snowboards, Finish Line and Brooks Running, and Under Armour are finalists for the corporate community impact award.

Honourees for the inaugural Billie Jean King youth leadership award, the sports sustainability leadership award and the league humanitarian leadership award will be announced at the July 9 event.

The proceeds will go to the Stuart Scott Memorial Cancer Research Fund.