Key events
An award! The Helen Rollason Award will be first to be handed out.
Root has a live chat from his hotel in New Zealand. It’s just gone 8am there, the morning after the Test series ended, and he’s looking a little bleary-eyed. Only once, in 2021, has he scored more runs than he has this year. “It’s been a hell of a journey, but it seems to get more and more enjoyable,” he says.
Jimmy Anderson on Root. You won’t get many better quotes than this.
I can’t think of a better role model for the game of cricket. I’ve got children, I’d love for them to grow up and be that sort of person.
So far there’s been a quick sprint through the year in rugby union, and a quick chat with Ellie Kildunne looking ahead to next year’s World Cup. And now the first profile of a SPOTY contender: Joe Root.
Some campaigning is going on.
Voting for the main award is open now. If you’re online, which it appears you are, you can vote here.
It’s started! With, inevitably, an emotional montage. David Harewood on voiceover duty.
We’ve also got some great things to read on the other athletes nominated for the main award. Here’s a selection:
Jude Bellingham
Ben Fisher’s profile of the England and Real Madrid ace:
And Barney Ronay’s appreciation of the midfielder:
Luke Littler
Donald McRae interviews the darts prodigy:
And Jonathan Liew’s piece written when Littler reached the World Darts final:
Joe Root
Here’s Donald McRae’s interview with Root, published last month:
And Ali Martin’s response to Root passing Alastair Cook to become England’s all-time leading Test run-scorer:
Dame Sarah Storey
Here’s Don’s 2021 interview:
And Tanya Aldred on her 19th Paralympic gold and 30th medal overall:
Keely Hodgkinson
And here’s Sean Ingle’s interview from 2021:
And Andy Bull’s piece from the Stade de France after she finally turned her golden dream into reality:
… While Sean Ingle had a few words with big prize nominee Alex Yee:
And here’s his report on Yee’s golden moment in Paris:
Some pre-Spoty reading: Donald McRae had a chinwag with lifetime achievement award-winner Mark Cavendish, and then wrote this about it:
Hello world!
Buckle up, we have two hours of sporting fun/hell ahead of us, depending on your point of view, as we look back on a year that brought us the Paris Olympics and Paralympics, someone called Raygun, England’s men kind of flunking Euro 2024 while still reaching the final, England’s men kind of flunking a T20 World Cup while still reaching the semi-finals, the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Glasgow, 15-year-old Mika Stojsavljevic becoming the first British girl to win a junior grand slam title since 2009 (and a couple of senior Grand Slam singles titles for each of Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka), Manchester City winning stuff for a change, Emma Hayes leaving Chelsea, Jude Bellingham coming third in the Ballon d’Or voting, Ireland winning the Six Nations, Lando Norris finishing second to Max Verstappen in the Formula One world championship, Lukes Humphries and Littler in the World Darts final and further world championships in, among other things, aerobic gymnastics, beach handball, beach soccer, biathlon, biathlon, bobsleigh, canoe marathon, canoe polo, canoe sprint, chess, curling, cyclo-cross, diving, field archery, figure skating, flag football, ice hockey, indoor bowls, judo, luge, modern pentathlon, orienteering, parkour, race walking, road bicycle racing, rowing, skeleton, ski flying, speed skating (four of them!), squash, team table tennis, track cycling, weightlifting and wrestling. Plus the scandal-ravaged conkers competition, obviously.
Tonight we’ll ignore most of those things because British people weren’t that good at them, and focus on celebrating some of the nation’s great success stories. Along the way eight awards will be presented, namely:
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The Helen Rollason Award, given “for outstanding achievement in the face of adversity”.
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The Unsung Hero Award, given to a volunteer who has a significant impact on sports participation in their community. The winner will be chosen from the 15 people who have received regional awards – read more about them on the BBC website here.
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A lifetime achievement award, which we already know will go to Sir Mark Cavendish.
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Coach of the Year, won in each of the last four years by football managers and currently held by Pep Guardiola.
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Team of the Year, won in each of the last four years by whichever football team was managed by the Coach of the Year and so currently held by Manchester City.
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World Sport Star of the Year, for which six athletes have been shortlisted: the Swiss para athlete Catherine Debrunner, Swedish pole-vault deity Armand Duplantis, the Dutch Olympic women’s marathon champion, and 10,000m and 5,000m bronze-medalist, Sifan Hassan, French swimming sensation Leon Marchand, American basketball ace Caitlin Clark and her compatriot, the needs-no-introduction gymnast Simone Biles.
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Young Sports Personality of the Year, for which the three shortlisted athletes are the 18-year-old para-swimmer William Ellard, who won two golds and a silver at the Paralympics, the skateboarder Sky Brown, who at 16 won her second Olympic medal in Paris, and the 17-year-old darts phenomenon Luke Littler.
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And finally the Sports Personality of the Year, for which the nominees are triathlete Alex Yee, para cyclist Dame Sarah Storey, the very same Luke Littler who will presumably have already pocketed the Young Sports Personality of the Year award, Real Madrid and England’s Jude Bellingham, record-obliterating cricketer Joe Root, fresh from being England’s best player in a Test match yet again, and pre-event favourite Keely Hodgkinson, who won a brilliant gold over 800m in Paris.
The great and the good of the world of sport are gathering as I type in Salford, with the ceremony starting at 7pm GMT and ending two glorious, joyful, miserable, interminable (delete as appropriate) hours later. Welcome!
