The BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award is the main award of the BBCSports Personality of the Year ceremony, which takes place each December. The winner is the sportsperson, judged by a public vote, to have achieved the most that year. The recipient must either be British or reside and play a significant amount of their sport in the United Kingdom. The winner is selected by a public-vote from a pre-determined shortlist. The most recent award winner is cricketerBen Stokes, who won in 2019. Sports Personality of the Year was created by Paul Fox, who thought of the idea while he was editor of the magazine show Sportsview. The first award ceremony took place in 1954 as part of Sportsview, and was presented by Peter Dimmock. For the first show, votes were sent by postcard, and rules presented in a Radio Times article stipulated that nominations were restricted to athletes who had featured on the Sportsview programme since April. Approximately 14,500 votes were cast, and Christopher Chataway beat Roger Bannister to win the inaugural BBC Sportsview's Personality of the Year Award. Four people have won the award more than once: tennis playerAndy Murray is the only person to have won three times, while boxerHenry Cooper and Formula One driversNigel Mansell and Damon Hill have each won twice. Snooker playerSteve Davis and Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton have finished in the top three a record five times. Eight people have twice finished second without ever winning, including Bobby Charlton and Sally Gunnell. Jessica Ennis-Hill holds the record for most top three placements without a win; having finished second once and third three times. Both Charlton and Ennis-Hill, received the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award. Princess Anne and her daughter Zara Phillips are the only award-winners to be members of the same family. The oldest recipient of the award is Dai Rees, who won in 1957 aged 44. Ian Black, who won the following year, aged 17, is the youngest winner. Torvill and Dean, who won in 1984, are the only non-individual winners of the award, so in the 65 years of the award there have been 66 recipients. Of these 13 have been female. 17 sporting disciplines have been represented; athletics has the highest representation, with 17 recipients. Counting Torvill and Dean separately, there have been 48 English winners of the award, six Scottish, five Welsh, three Northern Irish, and one Manx. Since the award ceremony began only on one occasion have none of the podium placers been English. On three occasions a sportsman from outside the United Kingdom has made the podium, on each occasion for sporting success achieved in Great Britain; New Zealand speedway star Barry Briggs and Italian jockey Frankie Dettori. Barry McGuigan, Greg Rusedski and Lennox Lewis originally competed for Ireland and Canada respectively, but had completed their transfer of allegiance to Great Britain by the time of their awards.
Nomination procedure
The shortlist is announced a few weeks before the award ceremony, and the winner is determined on the night by a public telephone and on-line vote. Prior to 2012, a panel of 30 sports journalists each submitted a list of 10 contenders. From these contenders a shortlist of ten nominees was determined. This method was criticized following the selection of an all-male shortlist in 2011. The selection process for contenders was changed for the 2012 and subsequent awards by the introduction of an expert panel. The panel produces a shortlist that reflects UK sporting achievements on the national and/or international stage, represents the breadth and depth of UK sports and takes into account ‘impact’ within and beyond the sport or sporting achievement in question. For 2020, one of the hot favorites for nomination is Leeds United Head Coach Marcelo Bielsa, who not only returned LUFC to the top flight this year, but was also awarded the FIFA Fair Play award in 2019. He is accredited with bringing back the soul and belief to one of the UKs great cities.
Winners
By sport
This table lists the total number of awards won by the winner's sport.
