Well there hasn’t been a lot of success really so obvious nominees haven’t been clear. Sports Personality of the Year contenders named Cricketer Stuart Broad, jockey Frankie Dettori, footballer Mary Earps, wheelchair tennis player Alfie Hewett, athlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson and golfer Rory McIlroy are the nominees. Some surprised Josh Kerr or Ronnie O’Sullivan haven’t been nominated but Mary Earps and Stuart Broad are the clear favourites.
I think Mary Earps is pretty much a certainty to win the award this year, just as her England colleague Beth Mead was last year. If she, or Katarina Johnson-Thompson for that matter, wins, it will the first time the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award has been won by a woman three years running in nearly 60 years. However, and it may be because England ended up losing the World Cup final rather than winning it, I just don't feel Earps is as outstanding a candidate for it as Mead was. What works in Earps' favour, as you've alluded to, is the lack of obvious contenders. In my view, three of the six shortlisted candidates - Stuart Broad, Frankie Dettori and Rory McIlroy - can consider themselves very fortunate to be in the running and, collectively, the shortlist is among the weakest we have seen since phone voting was introduced 25 years ago on the basis of achievement in the year. For me, the one glaring omission is Josh Kerr. Ronnie O'Sullivan will only be a serious contender if and when he wins an eighth world title.
Britain’s had a rubbish year in sport if they are the best nominations. The complete opposite to Olympic year (now that we’re good at the Olympics), where you could probably have a dozen names that are worth the title
More in for their careers or personal accolades than actually winning things this year . As Jonny says probably be different next year . I mean if England win the Euros!
The nominations of Broad and Dettori smack of "lifetime achievement" rather than of any major performance this year and I don't think that is what Sports Personality of the Year should be about. Plenty of people will also wonder what McIlroy's done this year outside the Ryder Cup and being a leading LIV Golf critic. I'll probably end up voting for KJT on the night, if I vote at all.
Poor list there but I can remember when Zara Phillips won... now that was a bleak year in terms of British sporting success. Edit: just googled, 2006 with Darren Clarke 2nd and Beth Tweddle 3rd, the year after that Ashes series. Talk about the sublime to the ridiculous!
That was the year Joe Calzaghe couldn't even get in the top three after dismantling Jeff Lacy with one of the greatest performances ever seen in a British ring. At least that outrage was put right the following year. But Phillips and Tweddle were at least world champions in their chosen sports in that year so it wasn't that bad. Such richly deserved recognition in so many ways.
Alfie Hewitt for me. Won five grand slams across singles and doubles, made the final of another and won the end of year tour event in singles and doubles.
Ironic the BBC making a big deal of this tedious ceremony. Probably because it's pretty much as close as they get to anything 'live' in sport these days, bar the odd FA Cup match or cross country pancake tossing.
That is part of the problem. As they have so little rights it’s not really a review of the year but more load of chat and VTs.
Very true, but the BBC has a budget of £3 billion a year and it was their choice to walk away from football, F1, golf etc. etc. They'd sooner spend the money on the Wimbledon borefest, or 'celebrity' shite rather than any of this country's actual favourite spectator pasttimes.
To be fair they're in a no win situation with this. Sports rights for the most popular sports are ridiculously expensive now and they're competing with huge internationally funded specialist sports channels. If they paid the going rate for these events and brought them back to terrestrial, they'd have to make cuts elsewhere and they'd be accused of failing their public service remit and blowing all their licence fee money on commercial sports rights which should be left to the commercial sector. But if they don't pay up, they get accused of abandoning sports and preventing the kind of collective sporting moments that can only happen with terrestrial broadcasts, like the 2005 Ashes. There's no defending that Sports Personality lineup though. Josh Kerr not getting nominated but Broad and Dettori getting in can't be defended. And the winner having not even won anything this year either.
