Nashua's Emily Sweet has wrapped up a storied career for Bentley University while battling cancer. (Photo courtesy of Sportspix/Bentley University)

WALTHAM, Mass. – “Defying the Odds: The 2022 Honda Inspiration Award”, which will include the story of Bentley University and Nashua swimmer Emily Sweet’s battle with Hodgkin’s’ lymphoma, premiered Monday night on the CBS Sports Network.

There will be encore airings throughout the week, including this morning at 10 EDT.

“Defying the Odds”, a 30-minute show, will feature the three finalists, including Sweet, for the 2022 Honda Inspiration Award, which will be presented during a live telecast on the CBS Sports Network on June 27 at 9 p.m. EDT. CBS Sports Network is 261 on Comcast (1303 HD).

Sweet isn’t the only New Hampshire athlete featured. Also a finalist for the award is Hampstead’s Lauren Thibodeau, a Pinkerton Academy alum and a senior golfer at the University of Louisville who overcame Celiac Disease and medical Catatonia. Thibodeau is the reigning New Hampshire Women’s Golf Association champion.

An Inspiration Award winner has been selected annually for the past 34 years, with one of the past honorees being former Bentley volleyball player Holly Anderson in 1998. The Honda Inspiration Award is given to a deserving female student-athlete in Division I, II or III who has experienced extraordinary physical and/or emotional adversity, injury and/or illness, or experienced extraordinary personal sacrifice during her college enrollment as a student-athlete and yet returns to athletic success.

Sweet was diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in January 2021. She stayed at home that semester as Covid-19 was at its peak and classes were remote. Swimming had been put on hold by the Northeast-10 Conference, with Bentley practicing beginning in mid-February.

When her chemo wrapped up in August 2021, Sweet returned to campus and practice with her team for her final season.

Sweet’s first competition since her diagnosis was against Wheaton College Oct. 21, 2021. That would be one of seven meets the Falcon co-captain competed in during this past season.

Sweet, Bentley’s nominee for Northeast-10 and NCAA Woman of the Year, was voted to the Academic All-Northeast-10 team for women’s swimming.

The other Honda finalist is Payton Murphy, a junior gymnast at Western Michigan University who battled back from serious injury in which she fractured her vertebrae in four different locations.