Sports Personality of the Year

A focus on sporting achievement

June 2025

Linford Christie 1993

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In 1993, sprinter Linford Christie was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year, ahead of fellow athlete Sally Gunnell and racing driver Nigel Mansell. Presenting Christie with the trophy, host Peter Dimmock made reference to the fact that the Jamaican-born athlete had finished runner-up, behind Nigel Mansell, the previous year, saying quietly, “A year late, but you got it.” Christie went on to say, “The Americans gave me a little bit of trouble this year and I toyed with retirement a few years ago, but without them I wouldn’t be around…”

At the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Christie ran 9.96 seconds in the final of the men’s 100 metres to win the gold medal. He was, in fact, just the third Briton to do so, after Harold Abrahams in Paris in 1924 and Alan Wells in Moscow in 1980 and, at the age of 32, the oldest Olympic 100-metre champion by over four years.

At the 1993 World Athletics Championships in Stuttgart, Christie ran a personal-best 9.87 seconds to win the gold medal, thereby becoming the first British man in history to simultaneously hold Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth titles at the same time. Indeed, his time would stand as a British record until 2023, when Zharnel Hughes ran 9.83 seconds in New York. Hughes said afterwards that he looked forward to “seeing him [Christie], shaking his hand and telling him that this is long overdue”.

Domestically, Christie was a member of Thames Valley Harriers, who are based at what was originally known as the West London Stadium in Wormwood Scrubs, West London. In 1993, the stadium was renamed the Linford Christie Stadium in his honour.

Christie retired from competitive international athletics in 1997, at the age of 37, with 24 major medals, including 11 gold medals, to his name. He continued to make sporadic appearances in smaller events until, in 1999, he was handed a two-year ban after testing positive for the anabolic steroid nandralone, effectively ending his competitive career once and for all. Christie was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to athletics in the 1998 Birthday Honours.

Lennox Lewis 1999

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In 1999, boxer Lennox Lewis was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year, beating footballer David Beckham into second place and athlete Colin Jackson into third. After picking up the trophy, he said, “”It’s a a great honour to be able to achieve my goal. I’d like to thank the team behind me. I’d like to thank my country. It’s been 10 years through trials and tribulations of trying to acheive this goal and they actually made me box 24 rounds for it [the undisputed world heavyweight title], so I can say I earnt it. For all the young people out and young athletes, may my trials and tribulations be a level for success for them.”

Lewis had won the vacant World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight title in February 1997, by virtue of a fifth-round technical knockout of Oliver McCall at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. In March 1999, he fought a unification bout against reigning World Boxing Association (WBA) and the International Boxing Federation (IBF) champion Evander Holyfield at Madison Square Garden, New York, which resulted in a split decision draw. The rematch, at the Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas in November, was another closely-fought affair, which also went the distance.

However, Lewis won by unanimous points decision, 116-112, 117-111, 115-113, to become the first British undisputed heavyweight champion of the world since Bob Fitzsimmons in the late nineteenth century. After three successful title defences, he was knocked in the fifth round by Hamsin Rakman in Carnival City, South Africa in April 2001, but won the rematch at the Manadalay Bay Resort & Casino, Las Vegas the following November by fourth-round knockout.

Lewis subsequently knocked out Mike Tyson at The Pyramid, Memphis in August 2002 and stopped Vitali Klitschko at the Staples Center, Los Angeles in June 2003. He retired, as reigning world heavyweight champion, in February 2004, at the age of 38. He retired with a record of 41-2-1, with 32 wins by knockout. The World Boxing Council had set a deadline of March 1 to confirm a rematch with Klitschko, but Lewis chose to become the first reigning heavyweight champion to retire since Rocky Marciano in 1956.

Greg Rusedski 1997

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Tennis player Greg Rusedski was born in Montreal, Canada on September 6, 1973 but, having won his first Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) singles title, the Hall of Fame Open in Newport, Rhode Island in 1993, as a Canadian national, he opted for British citizenship, courtesy of his English-born mother, in 1995. His decision was not universally popular on either side of the Atlantic, but in 1997 Rusedski received a fillip from the British public when he was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year in his adopted country.

At the 1997 Wimbledon Championships, Rusedski, who began the year with a world ranking of 48 , progressed to the quarter-finals of the men’s singles, where he lost in four sets to eventual runner-up Cédric Pioline. At the 1997 US Open, which featured the newly-built Arthur Ashe Stadium at the

United States Tennis Association (USTA) Tennis Center in Queens, New York as the main court, Rusedski reached the final of the men’s singles without dropping a set. He eventually lost, again in four sets, to Patrick Rafter.

In so doing, Rusedski became the first British man to reach the singles final at the US Open since Fred Perry won, for the third time, in 1936 and the first to reach any Grand Slam singles final since John Lloyd, who lost in five sets to Vytautas ‘Vitas’ Gerulaitis at the Australian Open in December 1977. Sadly, his notable achievements were overshadowed by the tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales from injuries sustained in a car crash in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris, France on August 31, 1997, midway through the US Open.

Nevertheless, while Rusedski never won a Grand Slam singles title, the most memorable year of his career saw him a world ranking of four and, in the days before Sir Andy Murray, his efforts were duly recognised by BBC viewers. Having accepted his trophy from Sir Peter O’Sullevan, who introduced him as “Rudeski”, Rusedski said, “I am absolutely delighted to receive this prestigious award; it’s in such excellent company. I’d like to thank all the people who voted for me. It’s a difficult name to spell, as you know…”

Jonathan Edwards 1995

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Born in London on May 18, 1966, triple jumper Jonathan Edwards was, by his own admission, “a very late developer”. However, having failed to qualify for two consecutive Summer Olympics, in Seoul in 1988 and Barcelona in 1992, in 1995 he enjoyed a true annus mirabilis.

In June, at the European Cup, Edwards jumped an illegally wind-assisted 18.43 metres at what is now the Stadium Lille-Metropole, making him the first man in history to jump beyond 60 feet, or 18.29 metres, and just the third, after the American duo Willie Banks and Mike Conley, to jump beyond 18 metres under any circumstances. He later reflected on his achievement, saying, “Afterwards, I was very disappointed. I think my 18.43m was worth between 18.20m and 18.30m legal.”

His disappointment did not last long, though. In July, Edwards jumped 17.74 metres in Gateshead to break the British record and 17.98 metres in Salamanca to break the 10-year-old world record previously held by the aforementioned Willie Banks.

In August, at the World Athletics Championships in Gothenberg, Edwards broke the world record again, with a first-round jump of 18.16 metres, making him the first man in history to legitimately jump beyond 18 metres. Clearly ‘in the groove’, in the second round he did so again, sailing out to an eye-watering 18.29 metres, thereby setting a new world record, which, at the time of writing, still stands. Not altogether surprisingly, Edwards became an instant celebrity.

Edwards ended 1995 by being voted World Athlete of the Year, European Athlete of the Year and BBC Sports Personality of the Year, in the latter case beating boxer Frank Bruno into second place and rally driver Colin McRae into third in the public vote. Having accepting the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award from Ryder Cup captain Bernard Gallacher, Edwards began, “I’m not quite sure I can speak,” but went on to thank his coaches, his wife, Alison, and his mother and father. He said, “The thing that’s stuck out is how many people have sacrified without the sort of rewards that I’ve received this year.”