Sports Personality of the Year 2020

[Panda]

This year's shortlist is being unveiled throughout the course of the day through various BBC TV and radio shows.

The first two nominees are:

Lewis Hamilton - Became a 7-time world champion and surpassed Michael Schumacher's record for the most grand prix victories.

Stuart Broad - Was the leading wicket taker in the test series against the West Indies, despite being dropped for the first test and he became the seventh player to reach 500 test wickets. He was then the top wicket taker in the series against Pakistan, taking a total of 29 in the five tests he played this summer.

[rubcale]

Surely Lewis Hamilton is a shoo-in?

[Panda]

He should be. He's a clear odds on favourite.

It'll be interesting to see where the other nominations go. I don't think they've announced how many there will be but I think it's been a smaller shortlist in recent years and given the depleted sporting calendar I would only expect around 6.

Tyson Fury should make it on to the list after beating Deontay Wilder at the start of the year. I think jockey Hollie Doyle has a good chance after the amazing year she's had (plus there's no way it will be an all-male shortlist). Adam Peaty could be a late inclusion given his continued record breaking exploits in the International Swimming League. Tao Geoghegan Hart could sneak on to the list after his surprise victory at the Giro d'Italia. Ronnie O'Sullivan is joint second favourite in the betting (alongside Fury) but I just can't see him making the shortlist as SPOTY has all but ignored snooker in recent years. Scottish wrestler Drew McIntyre has even appeared in some betting markets after becoming the first Briton to be WWE champion but I think his inclusion would be a huge stretch for the BBC.

[suedehead]

With so many sporting events cancelled or delayed, O'Sullivan must have a better chance of being included this year.

[Panda]

Dec 1, 2020 11:53:48 GMT 1 suedehead said:

With so many sporting events cancelled or delayed, O'Sullivan must have a better chance of being included this year.

Certainly better than in any other year but I just feel the BBC will find other options. They also won't want an all-English shortlist so they'll find a way to shoehorn in someone from Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. Possibly superbike rider Jonathan Rea (who finished 2nd in SPOTY in 2017) or Scottish athlete Jemma Reekie who won two Diamond League races over 800m, or possibly Welsh rugby player Alun Wyn-Jones, who became the most capped player of all time this autumn.

[Panda]

Contender no.3 is Jordan Henderson, captain of Liverpool's dominant Premier League winning team.

[Panda]

The 4th contender is Hollie Doyle, who broke the record (she already held) for most winners ridden by a female jockey in Britain in a single year, despite the season being shortened due to Covid. She also had five winners in one day at a meeting at Windsor, became the first woman to ride a winner on Champions Day at Ascot and also had a winner at Royal Ascot.

[Panda]

Ronnie O'Sullivan makes it on to the list as the 5th contender - he won his 6th World Snooker Championship this year.

[Panda]

Tyson Fury is the 6th and final contender so BBC have, rather surprisingly, gone with an all-English shortlist.

[Panda]

Odds:
4/9 Lewis Hamilton
8/1 Ronnie O'Sullivan
10/1 Tyson Fury
20/1 Jordan Henderson
28/1 Hollie Doyle
200/1 Stuart Broad

[vastar iner]

No Tao Geoghegan-Hart?

[Panda]

It looks like BBC really want Hamilton to win it this year. Cycling fans really tend to get behind those included on the list, as shown by Wiggins, Cavendish and Thomas all winning in the last decade. The same applies to people from other home nations, who pick up the Scottish/Welsh/Northern Irish vote regardless. The list they've come up with gives Hamilton the best possible chance to win.

[Shireblogger]

It has been another fantastic year for British cyclists.

Lizzie Deignan won the 2020 UCI Women's World Tour - effectively the championship of championships. Along the way she won La Course (the women's Tour de France), the Liege-Bastogne-Liege classic and the GP de Plouay-Lorient. On a BBC shortlist containing only one woman, Lizzie should definitely have been included.

Tao Geoghan Hart won the Giro d'Italia in remarkable circumstances. The 25 year-old had been picked by Ineos as a support rider for Geraint Thomas. On the first day's time trial, Geoghan Hart took it easy to preserve his energy, and finished 126th, losing over 2 minutes to the main contenders. But Thomas broke his hip on day three, and Geoghan Hart was promoted to team leader. Stage after stage he clawed back the deficit and moved up the rankings. He won stage 15 to move up to 4th overall, came second on stage 18 to move to 3rd, won stage 20 which put him 2nd, and then beat the race leader on the final stage time trial to win by 39 seconds.

The same race also saw Alex Dowsett win a stage, to add to a stage win in 2013.

Meanwhile, in the Vuelta a Espana, 26 year-old Hugh Carthy finished 3rd overall, having won one of the most demanding stages, finishing at the top of the legendary mountain L'Angliru. Like Geoghan Hart, Carthy had not started the race as his team's leader, but the retirement of the Spaniard he had been selected to support thrust Carthy into the spotlight.

Adam Yates wore the yellow (leader's) jersey in the Tour de France for 4 days, eventually finishing 9th. Yates also won the Tour of the UAE.

His twin brother, Simon Yates won the Tirreno-Adriatico stage race (Geraint Thomas was 2nd) and came 3rd in the Tour of Poland.



Lewis Hamilton is, without question, the British Sports Personality of the Year - for both his sporting exploits and his behaviour and work as a respected global figure. But cycling is the sport where Britain showed its breadth and depth of talent most successfully.

[rubcale]

There's the usual ballyhoo about only one woman on the list but personally it seems fair enough.

The six that are there deserve to be although others may have an equal claim.

I don't agree with quotas - it should be the best 6 and of course there'll always be contention.

If the best 6 turn out to be all men or all women so be it.

[Shireblogger]

^^^ Agreed. Therefore, the BBC shouldn't feel obliged to nominate a footballer every year. Lizzie Deignan has achieved far more, in global competition, during 2020 than Jordan Henderson.

[suedehead]

It says a lot that someone I've never heard of (Hollie Doyle) probably paid more UK tax last year than Lewis Hamilton.

[raliverpool]

Dec 2, 2020 12:16:55 GMT 1 suedehead said:

It says a lot that someone I've never heard of (Hollie Doyle) probably paid more UK tax last year than Lewis Hamilton.

She must have earned a lot of winnings in Horse Racing to be among the 5000 individual tax payers alongside the 7 time F1 & statistical GOAT then.

www.bt.com/sport/news/2020/november/prime-minister-urged-not-to-deny-lewis-hamilton-a-knighthood-over-tax-status

Personally, I think the six shortlist should have been, in order of most deserving:

1. Lewis Hamilton - Clearly some people think 2 times SPOTY winners/1 time F1 champion Damon Hill & Nigel Mansell deserved their awards; where as 7 time, statistical F1 GOAT does not. Anyone who witnessed the 2020 Turkey GP will realize LH44's very latest addition to his wet weather masterclasses knows he is unquestionably the best F1 driver of his generation. Whilst unlike Ayrton Senna & Michael Schumacher he did not need to resort to "the dark arts" to do so.

2. Lucy Bronze - An astonishing snub. She helped Lyon to a domestic French treble on top of becoming first English player male or female to win the modern era Champions League title three times before returning to the delayed domestic season and helping Man City to their third Women’s FA Cup title. She is Woman Footballer of The Year, and she became the first English footballer to win the UEFA Women's Player of the Year Award.

3. Hollie Doyle - The first female to win a major flat horse race event (British Champions Sprint Stakes); Breaking the record for the most races won by a female (& that in a year badly impacted by cancelled race events due to Covid19); rode five winners in one day at Windsor Racecourse, making her the first female jockey to win five races on the same card in Britain; and finishing fourth in the Jockeys' Championship. Just imagine a female ranked 4th in the world at Darts or Snooker to get a sense of her achievements.

4. Jonathan Rea - The record breaking 6 times Superbike world champion (2015-20). He now holds the all time record for most race victories.

5. Ronnie O'Sullivan - A weak year sees the 6 times & reigning Snooker world champion on the list. He is the most successful player in the history of snooker's Triple Crown Series, with a record 20 titles. He also holds the all-time record for the most ranking titles in professional snooker, with 37. But ironically he is having a poor year where other than winning the WC he has slipped from his near unassailable #1 world ranking down to second spot behind Judd Trump.

6. Tyson Fury - On his own his destruction of Deontay Wilder to become the WBC Heavyweight Champion of the World is an outstanding achievement, but not enough to merit a place on the list. But if you factor in his rise, fall & resurrection then it fully deserves a place on the list in a relatively weak list. When normally we'd be hanging on to see who the winner of The Gypsy King v Anthony Joshua to merit a place on the shortlist.

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As a LFC fan I have to be honest and say much as I love Jordan Henderson, our Captain has not done enough to merit a place on the list. I can't help but wonder if this is a sop for last year the outrageous snub of Liverpool FC not winning the team award, when they finished a narrow second in the PL with a record number of points for runners up spot; and were running away with the title (so had accrued more than ten points more than Man City throughout 2019); and were reigning European Champions; European Super Cup Champions; & World Club Champions. Plus I think Exeter Rugby Union club deserve the Team award this year, as based on 2020 Liverpool FC deserve it as much as Ronnie Sullivan deserves SPOTY.

Chris Broad seems an odd pick. Sure it is an achievement for surpassing 500 wickets, because Jimmy passed 600 and is the only English cricketer to have done that, but I feel a lot of the narrative why "Broady" made this list is due to him being unfairly retired by pundits, so had to "win" his place back in the team. Whilst doing that at consecutive matches at the seam bowlers paradise that is Old Trafford seems like major over compensation to me.

Whilst the much touted Tao Geoghegan Hart is more a case of the sporting Cinderella story of the year. Sure, what he did to win the Giro d'Italia was remarkable in the circumstances. But that race is very much the third biggest Grand race tour in the calendar behind the Tour De France & Vuelta a España. Hopefully, his time is gonna come in future years....

[Panda]

Voting is open for the World Sport Star of the Year award (formerly the Overseas Sports Personality award).

The six nominees are:

Armand Duplantis - Swedish pole vaulter who set new world records indoors and outdoors this year.

Lebron James - US basketball star who was named MVP as the LA Lakers won the NBA Finals. He is the first player to win the award with three different teams.

Dustin Johnson - US golfer who won the Masters for the first time with a record low score, as well as winning the Fedex Cup, being named PGA Tour Player of the Year and finishing the year as world no.1.

Khabib Nurmagodemov - Russian MMA fighter who extended his unbeaten record to 29-0, just months after the death of his father Abdulmanap, who was also his coach.

Wendie Renard - French footballer who captained Lyon to their fifth consecutive Women's Champions League, 14th consecutive French league title and was shortlisted for FIFA's Best Women's Player award.

Katie Taylor - Irish boxer who maintained her unbeaten record as a professional, defending her four world lightweight titles twice during 2020.

[o]

So no super bike champion who's won it seven times in a row or something, but is northern Irish?

[vastar iner]

Superbikes are to MotoGP what touring cars are to F1. Even so he's got a runner-up finish in SPOTY, more than Andy Priaulx ever got.