June 2025

Robin Cousins 1980

Admin June 29, 2025

In 1980, figure skater Robin Cousins was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY), beating athletes Sebastian Coe and Daley Thompson in the public vote, after winning the men’s singles at the European Figure Skating Championships on Gothenburg, Sweden in January and a gold medal in the same event at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York in February. Having accepted the SPOTY trophy from John Arlott, Cousins, clearly emotional, said, “I was just beginning to get over everything that happened in Lake Placid and what a thrill it is for me to come back and receive this trophy.”

Cousins had previously won a bronze medal at the World Figure Skating Championships in Ottawa, Canada in 1978 and silver medal in Vienna, Austria in 1979. He would go on to win another silver medal in Dortmund, West Germany in March 1980, by which point he was already Olympic champion.

Under the auspices of renowned Italian coach Carlos Fassi – whose other students included 1976 European, World and Olympic Champion John Curry – Cousins was considered one of the best, if not the best, free skaters in the world. As such he was among the favourites for the gold medal in Lake Placid, with his principal opposition coming from the last two World Champions, Vladimir Kovalyov of the Soviet Union and Charles Tickner of the United States, and Jan Hoffman of East Germany, who was World Champion in 1974 and would be again in 1980.

After placing only fifth in the compulsory figures, Kovalyov was withdrawn from the competition, supposedly due to illness, leaving Cousins and Hoffman as main rivals for the gold medal. Hoffman led after the compulsory figures and the short programme but, skating first of the six competitors in the free skating, Cousins received 5.9 from eight of the nine judges for artistic impression. He did not watch any of his rivals, opting instead to watch Linda Fratianne in the practice arena, but had done enough to win the gold medal, ahead of Hoffman and Tickner. Cousins subsequently confessed, “When I went for my medal I tripped because I didn’t feel my feet.”

Ian Botham 1981

Admin June 29, 2025

Former cricketer Ian Botham received a knighthood for his services to charity and cricket in the 2007 Birthday Honours and a life peerage in 2020, becoming Baron Botham, of Ravensworth in the County of North Yorkshire. However, back in his playing days, in 1981, he was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year after an extraordinary summer of Test cricket that became known, quite rightly, as ‘Botham’s Ashes’.

Botham began the summer as England captain but, after losing the First Test at Trent Bridge by four wickets and bagging a pair in the drawn Second Test at Lord’s – which took his record to 12 winless matches in charge – he resigned the captaincy and was replaced by the previous incumbent, Mike Brearley, for the Third Test at Headingley. What followed has become the stuff of legend.

In the first innings, Australia made 401/9 declared and, having made just 174 all out in reply, England followed on and were precariously poised at 135-7 in the second innings. However, Botham went on to make 149 not out, including stands of 117 with Graham Dilley (56) and 67 with Chris Old (29), batting at number nine and number 10, respectively, to give England a lead of 129. In the second innings, Bob Willis took a mesmerising 8-43, reducing Australia to 111 all out and giving England an unlikely victory by 18 runs.

In the Fourth Test at Edgbaston, Australia were set a target of 151 in their second innings, but Botham took 5/14, including 5/1 in 28 balls, to dismiss the tourists for just 121. In the Fifth Test at Old Trafford, Botham was out for a duck in the first innings, but made 118 from 102 balls in the second, helping England to a 103-run win and an unassailable 3-1 lead in the series. Botham took 10 wickets in the drawn Sixth Test at the Oval and was named Player of the Series, with 399 runs and 34 wickets to his name.

Botham did not attend the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award ceremony, having alreay departed for a six-Test tour of India, but was presented with a replica trophy by former England captain Mike Brearley. Snooker player Steve Davis finished second and athlete Sebastian Coe third in the public vote.

Fatima Whitbread 1987

Admin June 29, 2025

In 1987, javelin thrower Fatima Whitbread was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY) , beating snooker player Steve Davis and golfer Ian Woosnam in the public poll. Accepting the coveted trophy from Colin Cowdrey, she said simply, “I feel very proud amd honoured….”

After a series of near misses in major championships – at the inaugural World Athletics Championships in Helsinki in 1983, the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh – Whitbread finally shed the ‘bridesmaid’ tag at the European Athletics Championships in Stuttgart, less than a month after the Commonwealth Games. In qualification, she threw a world record 77.44 metres and, in the final, threw 76.32 metres, the second-longest throw in history, to win the gold medal, ahead of Petre Felke and Beate Peters.

Felke regained the world record with a throw of 78.90 metres in Leipzig in late July 1987 and it was she and Whitbread who would emerge as the leading contenders for the gold medal at the World Athetics Championships in Rome in early September. Heading into the final day of the Championships, Whitbread appeared to the last hope of a gold medal for Team GB, but the Stoke Newington-born thrower answered every question asked of her. A fourth-round throw of 73.16 metres took her into the lead and she confirmed her position with a fifth-round throw of 76.64 metres, the second-longest of her career. Felke again won the silver medal and Peters the bronze.

Immediately afterwards, Whitbread said, “I can’t tell you how happy I am. At the moment it’s difficult to take it all in.” She also revealed the amount of effort required, saying, “My shoulder was sore and hurting and this was without doubt the toughest competition of my life. I had to work very hard for it. I was putting oil and freeze spray on all through the competition. Now I stink, but I believe I’ve proved I’m the greatest javelin thrower in the world.” Whitbread was also appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), for services to athletics, in the 1987 Birthday Honours.

Daley Thompson 1982

Admin June 29, 2025

In 1982, decathlete Francis Morgan Ayodélé Thompson, universally known as Daley Thompson, was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year, ahead of snooker player Alex Higgins and athlete Steve Cram. Never one to shy away from controversy, Thompson turned up at the awards ceremony dressed more casually than might have been expected and, having received the trophy from a suitably tuxedoed Sir Garfield Sobers, began his acceptance speech with the immortal words, “The first thing I’d like to say is that I feel like shit,” feigning shock as he did so.

Controversy or not, few could argue that Thompson fully deserved the accolade. Having won the gold medal in the decathlon at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow with a total of 8,495 points, he raised the world record to 8,730 in Götzis, Austria in May 1982 and in September, at the European Athletics Championships in Athens, Greece, did so again, this time to 8,774 points. In October, he also won the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, thereby ending 1982 as the Olympic, European and Commonwealth champion and the world record holder.

Widely hailed as the greatest all-round athlete of his era, if not of all time, Thompson went on to win gold at the inaugural World Athletics Championships in Helsinki in 1983 and to defend his title at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. On the latter occasion, he was retrospectively awarded a joint world record, 8,798 points, alongside previous holder Jurgen Hingsen, under the original scoring tables employed by the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) and the world record outright based on the revised tables which took effect in April 1985.

Thompson was finally forced into retirement by a recurring hamstring injury in 1992, having finished ninth at the World Athletics Championships in Rome in 1987 and fourth at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. However, it should not be forgotten that in his heyday he remained unbeaten in the decathlon for nine years, from 1978 to 1987. Reflecting on past glories, Thompson said recently, “Me and the bloke in the moustache are forty years apart. I think I’m a completely different person.”