An extraordinary sporting 12 months for Great
Britain in 2012 and to mark this astonishing year, 12 nominees will be chosen
as special dispensation by an expert panel including Denise Lewis, Tanya Grey
Thompson and Steve Redgrave to contest BBC Sports Personality of the Year. The
event will return to its usual Sunday night slot on December 16th. The beeb were left red faced last year with
no women on the shortlist but one can assume a diverse list this year including
women and paralympians. This will be nothing short of what the likes of Jessica
Ennis, Ellie Simmonds and David Weir deserve. The head of the betting though is
still male dominated with Wiggins, Farah and Murray with their supporters.
I’m not going to bore you with whose sporting
achievements outweigh each other’s in such a golden year. A mention however for
someone who will be lost in the galaxy of stars that will hit the Excel to be
honoured. I am in awe of what the Brownlee brothers achieved this year and they
will hardly get a look in on the night, Alistair will possibly be one of the
12. Alistair came back from a torn hamstring in January to win gold in the
Triathlon at the Olympics, his brother Johnny bronze despite a time penalty and
finishing physically exhausted and violently ill for a special medal double for
family and country. Johnny won the Triathlon World Championships recently to
cap a wonderful year. To put into context of Alistair’s greatness for those not
familiar with triathlon, he completed 1500m swim, 43km on the bike and a 10km
run in 1hour and 46mins. His 10km run at the end of this gruelling test was
only 97 seconds slower than Mo Farah’s gold winning run for the same distance
on the track. In another year his accomplishments would have to be recognised.
I digress. Who’ll win, what’s the value they scream.
Who deserves it and emotion have no place here. I like to treat the BBC SPOTY
like I’d treat a political election in terms of betting and possible outcomes.
Sport popularity, people’s perception, vote sharing, demographic that vote and
what BBC show on the night all has a part to play. In that sense the final 12
will have a knock on effect on the votes the main protagonists may receive. For
example Wiggins cause may be diluted the more cyclists on the shorlist; Hoy,
Storey, Pendelton, Kenny and Trott all possibles. Poulter and McIlroy may split
a golf vote, while one or other would be more dangerous. Andy Murray will fly
solo for Tennis and have a patriotic Scottish vote unless Hoy is involved. Mo
Farah, Jessica Ennis and Greg Rutherford you may say would split an athletics
vote. Weir, Simmonds and Storey are all paralympians with fantastic
achievements but may split votes from those inspired watching the channel 4
action earlier this year. Weir for me was particularly sensational, winning 4
golds from 4 events, 800m up to marathon in the ultra-competitive wheelchair
racing events.
