| BBC Sports Personality of the Year | |
|---|---|
| Current:2024 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award | |
The trophy for theBBC Sports Personality of the Year Award is a silver four-turret lens camera | |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Presented by | BBC |
| Formerly called |
|
| First award | 1954; 71 years ago (1954) |
| Website | Official website |
TheBBC Sports Personality of the Year is an awards ceremony that takes place annually in December. Devised byPaul Fox in 1954, it originally consisted of just a singleaward of the same name. Several new awards have been introduced, and currently eight awards are presented.
The first awards to be added were theTeam of the Year andOverseas Personality awards, which were introduced in 1960.[1] ALifetime Achievement Award was first given in 1995 and again in 1996, and has been presented annually since 2001.[2] In 1999, three more awards were introduced: theHelen Rollason Award, theCoach Award, and theNewcomer Award, which was renamed toYoung Sports Personality of the Year in 2001. The newest is theUnsung Hero Award, first presented in 2003.[3] In 2003, the 50th anniversary of the show was marked by a five-part series onBBC One calledSimply the Best – Sports Personality. It was presented byGary Lineker and formed part of a public vote to determine a specialGolden Sports Personality of the Year. That yearSteve Rider and Martyn Smith wrote a book reflecting on the 50-year history of the award and the programme.[4] The event was held outside London for the first time in 2006, when tickets were made available to the public.
The trophy for the main award is asilver-plated four-turret lens camera, and for theother awards smaller imitations of the main trophy are used. All of theBBC local regions hold their own independent award ceremonies, which take place before the main ceremony and are used to compile a shortlist for theBBC Sports Unsung Hero Award.[5]
Other awards have been presented in the past.Special Achievement Awards have been presented on five occasions: to jockeyLester Piggott in 1984 and 1994,[6] disabled marathon runner Dennis Moore in 1981, comedianDavid Walliams in 2006, and comedianEddie Izzard in 2009.Sebastian Coe picked up aSpecial Gold Award in 2005 for his work in helping Britain obtain the right to host the2012 Olympics.[7]
Five awards have been presented once:Manager of the Year in 1969, aSpecial Team Award in 1986,Good Sport Awards in 1990, anInternational Team Award in 1983, and theSports Personality of the Century Award in 1999.[1] In 2003, to celebrate fifty years of Sports Personality of the Year, two specialanniversary awards were created to recognise the best team and Sports Personality from the previous fifty years. RowerSteve Redgrave was votedBBC Golden Sports Personality of the Year and England's1966 World Cup-winning football team was chosen asTeam of the Decades.[8]
BBC Northern Ireland andBBC Wales present a trophy for athletes within their own nations at the same time as the main award, but organised within the region; the Northern Ireland award is conspicuously awarded to athletes whether they represent all of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Great Britain and Northern Ireland or even the Republic of Ireland or Europe (e.g. in golf), so long as they are from Northern Ireland.BBC Scotland ceased presenting their own award in the late 2000s, and England has never had such an award.
| Award | Created | Description[9] | Current holder |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sports Personality | 1954 | Awarded to the sportsperson "whose actions have most captured the public's imagination" | Keely Hodgkinson |
| World Sport Star | 1960 | Awarded to the sportsperson "who has made the greatest impression in the world of sport" | Armand Duplantis |
| Team | 1960 | Awarded to the team with the most notable achievement in British sport. | Wigan R.L.F.C. |
| Lifetime Achievement | 1996 | Awarded to a sportsperson "who has made a major impact on the world of sport during their lifetime" | Mark Cavendish |
| Coach | 1999 | Awarded to the coach who is adjudged to have made the most impact on British sport | Jenny Meadows Trevor Painter |
| Helen Rollason | 1999 | Awarded to someone who has shown "outstanding achievement in the face of adversity" | Mark Prince |
| Young Sports Personality | 1999 | Awarded to a young sportsperson who has made an outstanding contribution to British sport | Luke Littler |
| Unsung Hero | 2003 | Awarded to someone who "has given their time and talents for free to enable others to participate in sport" | Jean Paton |
| Venues | |
|---|---|
| Year(s) | Venue[10] |
| 1954–1956 | Savoy Hotel,London |
| 1957–1958 | Grosvenor House Hotel, London |
| 1959 | BBC Television Theatre, London |
| 1960–1964 | BBC Television Centre, London |
| 1965–1976 | BBC Television Theatre, London |
| 1977 | New London Theatre, London |
| 1978–1987 | BBC Television Centre, London |
| 1988–1998 | Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London |
| 1999–2005 | BBC Television Centre, London |
| 2006–2007 | National Exhibition Centre,Birmingham |
| 2008[11] | Echo Arena,Liverpool |
| 2009[12] | Sheffield Arena,Sheffield |
| 2010[13] | LG Arena, Birmingham |
| 2011[14] | dock10 studios,Salford |
| 2012[15] | ExCeL Centre, London |
| 2013[16] | First Direct Arena,Leeds |
| 2014[17] | SSE Hydro,Glasgow |
| 2015[18] | Odyssey Arena,Belfast |
| 2016[19] | Genting Arena, Birmingham |
| 2017[20] | Echo Arena, Liverpool |
| 2018[21] | Resorts World Arena, Birmingham |
| 2019[22] | P&J Live,Aberdeen |
| 2020[23] | dock10 Studios,Salford |
| 2021[24] | |
| 2022[25] | |
| 2023 | |
| 2024 | |
| 2025 | |
| Presenters | |
|---|---|
| Presenter | Year(s) |
| Peter Dimmock | 1954–1963 |
| David Coleman | 1961–1984 |
| Frank Bough | 1964–1982 |
| Harry Carpenter | 1968–1985 |
| Jimmy Hill | 1970s |
| Cliff Morgan | |
| Kenneth Wolstenholme | |
| Des Lynam | 1983–1998 |
| Steve Rider | 1986–2004 |
| Sue Barker | 1994–2012 |
| Gary Lineker | 1999–2023 |
| Clare Balding | 1999, 2012–present |
| John Inverdale | 1999 |
| Adrian Chiles | 2006–2007 |
| Jake Humphrey | 2008–2011 |
| Gabby Logan | 2013–present |
| Alex Scott | 2020–present |
TheBBC's Sports Personality of the Year was created byPaul Fox, who came up with the idea while he was editor of the magazine showSportsview. The first award ceremony took place as part of a special gala edition ofSportsview held at theSavoy Hotel on 30 December 1954. The show lasted 45 minutes and was presented byPeter Dimmock.[26] The ceremony was combined with two other awards, the sportsman and sportswoman of the year, which were determined by votes through theSporting Record newspaper.[27] The newspaper had presented their sportsman of the year award since 1946, to which they later added a sportswoman of the year award.[28] The award for the 1953Sporting Record winners had been broadcast on BBC radio in April 1954.[29] Voting for the BBC award was by postcard, and rules presented in aRadio Times article stipulated that nominations were restricted to athletes who had featured on theSportsview programme since April. For the inaugural BBC Sportsperson of the Year award, 14,517 votes were cast andChristopher Chataway beat fellow athleteRoger Bannister.[30] The following year the show was renamedSports Review of the Year and given a longer duration of 75 minutes.[1][30]
The award continued to be held together with the sportsman and sportswoman of the year awards until 1958, by which time the latter awards were being organised by theDaily Express.[31] From 1959 the BBC award ceremony was separated from the sportsman and sportswoman of the year awards.[32]
In 1960 Dimmock presented the show, and introduced two new awards:[30] theTeam of the Year award and theOverseas Personality award, won by theCooper Car Company and athleteHerb Elliott respectively.[33]David Coleman joined the show the following year and remained a co-presenter until 1983.[34] SwimmerAnita Lonsbrough became the first female recipient of the main award in 1962; females won it in the following two years as well.[35]Frank Bough took over as presenter in 1964 and presented Sports Review for 18 years.[36] In 1969, a newManager of the Year award was given toDon Revie for his achievements withLeeds United, the only occasion it was presented. In the following year boxerHenry Cooper became the first person to win the main award twice, having already won in 1967.
During the 1970s Bough and Coleman presided over the ceremony alongsideJimmy Hill,[37]Cliff Morgan,[38]Kenneth Wolstenholme,[38] andHarry Carpenter, who also went on to present the show until 1985.[39]Des Lynam took over as main host from Bough in 1983,[40] and presided over figure skating duoTorvill and Dean's win the following year, when they became the first non-individual winners of the main award.Steve Rider replaced Carpenter as co-host in 1986,[41] at which aSpecial Team Award was presented to Great Britain men's4 × 400 m relay team. In the 1980s,Steve Davis finished in the top three on five occasions, including one win in 1988.
In 1991, anglerBob Nudd received the most votes following a campaign in theAngling Times.[42] However, the BBC deemed this to be against the rules and refused to acknowledge his votes,[43] allowing athleteLiz McColgan to win the award. The following year racing driverNigel Mansell became the second person to win the main award twice, having won his first in 1986.Sue Barker presented the show for the first time in 1994,[44] at which racing driverDamon Hill won the first of his two awards, the second coming two years later. BoxerFrank Bruno was the inaugural winner of theLifetime Achievement Award in 1996,[45] and as of 2014 there have been 15 recipients of the award.
In 1999 the show was renamedSports Personality of the Year,[1] andGary Lineker joined the show as a co-presenter alongside Rider and Barker.[46] They were supported that year byJohn Inverdale andClare Balding. The ceremony introduced a further three regular awards:Coach of the Year,Newcomer of the Year, and aHelen Rollason Award for "outstanding courage and achievement in the face of adversity".[47] In a one-off award, boxerMuhammad Ali was voted as theSports Personality of the Century.[48]
On 1 November 2003,BBC Books published "BBC Sports Personality of the Year 50th Anniversary" (ISBN 0-563-48747-X), written by Steve Rider and Martyn Smith, to mark the golden anniversary of the show.[49][50] Leading up to the anniversary show on 14 December 2003, a series of five half-hour special programmes, entitledSimply The Best – Sports Personality, were broadcast. Hosted by Gary Lineker, the episodes were shown onBBC One for five consecutive nights from 8–12 December 2003; each covered one decade of Sports Personality history.[51] At the end of each programme, viewers voted for their favourite Sports Personality winner from the decade covered; the five winners then went onto a shortlist for one of two special50th Anniversary awards.[52] From this shortlist, rowerSteve Redgrave was votedGolden Sports Personality of the Year by the public.[53] TheEngland World Cup-winningteam of 1966 won aTeam of the Decades award, voted for by representatives from all previousTeams of the Year.[54]
In 2006, for the first time in its 53-year history, the event was held outside London, inBirmingham'sNational Exhibition Centre (NEC). For the first time, tickets for the event were made available to the public, and 3,000 were sold in the first hour.[55] That year,Adrian Chiles joined the show and co-presented alongside Barker and Lineker for two years.[56][57] The 2007 ceremony was the first of a two-year sponsorship deal withBritvic's brandRobinsons, and the capacity of the NEC was increased from 5,000 to 8,000.[58] The event sold out,[11] but the sponsorship deal was shortened to one year after complaints byITV and RadioCentre caused theBBC Trust to rule inJune 2008 that "Editorial Guidelines were breached and the editorial integrity of the BBC compromised by giving the impression to licence fee payers via Sports Personality of the Year that part of a BBC service had been sponsored."[59] They decided that the 2008 awards should not be broadcast as a sponsored event, and no new sponsorship deal was negotiated after the Britvic deal expired.[60][61] InFebruary 2008, the BBC announced that the 2008 Sports Personality of the Year event would be held at theEcho Arena,Liverpool. One reason for the move to Liverpool was to allow greater numbers to view the show live, as the 10,600-seater venue in Liverpool had a bigger capacity than the NEC.[11] That yearJake Humphrey replaced Chiles as co-presenter.[44] The 2009 show was rumoured to be held in either Cardiff or Glasgow.[62] However, it was announced on30 April 2009 that the show would be staged at theSheffield Arena,[12] after the city won the hosting rights over Cardiff.[63]
The2010 ceremony was held in Birmingham'sLG Arena with approximately 12,000 guests.[13] Theceremony in 2011 was held at Salford'sdock10 Studios withinMediaCityUK.[64] The2012 ceremony took place atExCeL London, which had been one of the major venues for both theOlympics andParalympics earlier that year. The60th ceremony in 2013 was held at theFirst Direct Arena in Leeds. In2014, the ceremony was held in Scotland for the first time in its history, at TheSSE Hydro in Glasgow, which had served as a host venue during theCommonwealth Games earlier in the year. In2015, the ceremony was held in Northern Ireland for the first time, at theSSE Arena in Belfast, on 20 December. The event returned to Birmingham and Liverpool in2016 and2017 respectively. The 2018 ceremony took place in Birmingham, marking the city's fifth time hosting the event (3rd time at the same venue). In 2018 theBBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year award was renamed World Sport Star of the Year. Along with the change of name, votes could be cast from outside of the UK for the first time. In addition a new award was announced: Greatest Sporting Moment of the Year. For the main award, the nominees would not be announced until the show itself.[65] The2019 ceremony took place inThe Event Complex inAberdeen.
The2020 ceremony took place on 20 December at thedock10 studios in Salford. Despite the national COVID-19 restrictions, the event was broadcast live on BBC One and hosted by Lineker, Balding,Gabby Logan and for the first time,Alex Scott. BoxerTyson Fury created controversy ahead of the awards by rejecting his nomination and instructing his legal team to force the BBC to exclude him from the shortlist.[66] Despite his protestations, Fury remained on the shortlist for the trophy which was won for the second time byLewis Hamilton.[67] Also awarded that year was the Expert Panel Special Award, awarded to footballerMarcus Rashford for his campaign against child food poverty.[68]
In May 2024, it was announced that under the BBC's "competitive tender" policy, Whisper North had won the tender to produce the ceremony.[69]
The trophy for themain award was created in the 1950s and cost about £1,000. It was first presented to the inaugural winner,Christopher Chataway, in 1954. It is asilver-plated four-turret lenscamera, with the name of each winner engraved on individual shields attached to aplinth underneath the camera. The trophy originally had one plinth, but two more were added to create room for more shields.[70] A replica trophy was made in 1981 and sent to India in caseIan Botham won the award while playing cricket there—which he did.[71] The original trophy is still used for the ceremony, and is engraved after the show before being given to the winner, who keeps it for eight or nine months.[70] The trophies for second and third place, and for theother awards, are smaller imitations of the main trophy,[72][73] but have in the past been silversalvers.[74] For the two specialawards celebrating the 50th Anniversary, and for theSports Personality of the Century award, similar miniature trophies were presented but they were gold in colour.[75][76]
Currently two BBC national regions,BBC Cymru Wales andBBC Northern Ireland, each hold individual sports personality awards. Respectively, they areBBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality of the Year since 1954,[77] andBBC Northern Ireland Sports Personality of the Year since 2003.[78] In 1977,BBC Scotland presentedtheir own equivalent for the first time but this has since been discontinued.[79]
The 12 localBBC English Regions also have their own award ceremonies,[80] which are held locally prior to the national ceremony. Also, fifteen regional winners comprise the nominees for theBBC Sports Unsung Hero Award.[5]

In 1969,Don Revie was presented with a Manager of the Year award for his achievements while in charge ofLeeds United A.F.C. Leeds became champions of theFootball League First Division thatseason, having lost only two games and scored a record number of points.[81]
| Year | Winner | Team | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 | Don Revie | Leeds United A.F.C. | [6] |

In 1981, to recognise theyear of the disabled, Dennis Moore received a Special Achievement Award for completing the inauguralLondon Marathon despite beingblind since birth.[82]Lester Piggott won an award in 1984 for his achievements, including winning theSt. Leger Stakes onCommanche Run that year, Piggott's record-breaking 28thBritish classic win.[83] In 1994, Piggott won the award again for his "services to racing".[84] ComedianDavid Walliams received the award in 2006 "for his outstanding achievement of swimming the English Channel for charity", which raised over £1 million forSport Relief.[85] Fellow comedianEddie Izzard was presented with the award in 2009 after running 43 marathons in 51 days forSport Relief.[86]
| Year | Winner | Sport | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Dennis Moore | Athletics | [82] |
| 1984 | Lester Piggott | Horse racing | [6] |
| 1994 | Lester Piggott | Horse racing | [84] |
| 2006 | David Walliams | Swimming | [87] |
| 2009 | Eddie Izzard | Athletics | [88] |
In 1983, the team ofAustralia II received an International Team Award in recognition of their victory in the1983America's Cup. The American defenderLiberty had taken a 3–1 lead inraces, butAustralia II came back to win 4–3 and take the America's Cup, ending a 132-year winning streak by theNew York Yacht Club. It was the first time the competition had gone to a seventh and final race.[89]
| Year | Nat. | Winner | Sport | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | Alan Bond and the crew ofAustralia II | Sailing | [6] |
In 1986, a Special Team Award was presented to the British 4 × 400 m squad ofDerek Redmond,Kriss Akabusi,Brian Whittle,Roger Black,Todd Bennett, andPhil Brown, who won gold at theEuropean Championships.[90] Akabusi, Black, Bennett and Brown also won gold for England in the 4 x 400 m at theCommonwealth Games that year.[91][92]
| Year | Winner | Sport | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | British Men's4 × 400 metres relay team | Athletics | [6] |
In 1990, Good Sport Awards were presented for courage and good sportsmanship toDerek Warwick,Martin Donnelly,Louise Aitken-Walker andTina Thörner, who were all involved in motor racing accidents that year. Warwick survived a high speed crash atMonza;[93] Donnelly crashed during a practice session for theSpanish Grand Prix—the injuries he received ended his Formula One career;[93][94] Aitken-Walker and co-driver Thörner crashed off a cliff into a lake in Portugal when competing in the women's World Rally Championship, which they went on to win that year.[93][95]
| Year | Winner | Sport | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Derek Warwick Martin Donnelly Louise Aitken-Walker Tina Thörner | Motor sport | [93][95] |
In 1999, a one-off award voted for by the British public selected a Sports Personality of the Century.Muhammad Ali accumulated more votes from BBC viewers than the combined total of the five other contenders:Pelé,George Best,Donald Bradman,Jack Nicklaus, andJesse Owens.[96]

In 2005,Sebastian Coe received a Special Gold Award for chairingLondon's winningbid for the 2012 SummerOlympic andParalympic games.[97]
| Year | Winner | Rationale | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Sebastian Coe[98] | "in recognition of his role in leading the winningLondon 2012 Olympic bid"[97] | After the games Coe received the 2012Lifetime Achievement Award[99] |
| Year | Winner | Rationale | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | England's historic netball gold | Awarded to the sporting moment that has "most captured the UK public's imagination" | |
| 2019 | 2019 England Win at the Cricket World Cup Final |
In 2020,Marcus Rashford received an Expert Panel Special Award for his campaign for free school meals during the COVID-19 pandemic and against child food poverty. In 2022,Kevin Sinfield received a Special Award for raising awareness of and fundraising formotor neurone disease.
| Year | Winner | Rationale | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Marcus Rashford | "for his work to raise awareness of child food poverty in the UK" | [68] |
| 2022 | Kevin Sinfield | "for raising awareness of and fundraising formotor neurone disease" | [102] |
As part of the 50th Anniversary of BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2003, two additional awards were presented.[103][104] In the lead up to the anniversary show on14 December 2003, a series of five half-hour special programmes, entitledSimply The Best – Sports Personality, were broadcast. Hosted byGary Lineker, the episodes were shown onBBC One for five consecutive nights from 8 to12 December 2003 and each covered one decade of Sports Personality.[51]
To celebrate the golden anniversary of the show, a special award was voted for by the public to recognise an all-time Golden Sports Personality from theprevious winners of the last 49 years.[105] A shortlist of five was planned to contain one winner from each decade of the award;[106] however, the actual shortlist contained two winners from the most recent decade—rowerSteve Redgrave, who won the award, and footballerDavid Beckham. The other members of the shortlist were footballerBobby Moore, cricketerIan Botham and ice skating duoTorvill and Dean.[53]
| Year | Winner | Sport | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Steve Redgrave | Rowing | [107] |
Alf Ramsey's squad won a poll to select a Team of the Decade for the 50th anniversary show. Representatives from each of the past winners of theTeam of the Year award voted for their outstanding team of the last 50 years.Bobby Robson presented the award toBobby Charlton, who collected the award on behalf of the lateBobby Moore's team.[54][105]
| Year | Winner | Sport | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | 1966 World Cup-winning football team | Football | [54] |
The BBC also announced Salford will be host to the Sports Personality of the Year event in December and that for the first time