June 2025

2008 Sir Chris Hoy

Admin June 5, 2025

Sir Chris Hoy was knighted for services to sport in the 2009 New Years Honours but, in a memorable year, was also voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2008. Edinburgh-born Hoy had been the subject of a media campaign in his native Scotland but, nonetheless, polled nearly 40% of the public vote, to beat racing driver Lewis Hamilton and swimmer Rebecca Adlington – both of whom were better-fancied by the bookmakers – into second and third place respectively.

At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Hoy won three gold medals at the Laoshan Velodrome, in the keirin, the individual sprint and the team sprint, alongside Jason Kenny and Jamie Staff. He thus became the first Briton since swimmer Henry Taylor – who won the 400 metre freestyle, 4 x 200 metre freestyle and the 1500 metre freestyle at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London – two win three gold medals at a single Games. He subsequently became the first cyclist to be named BBC Sports Personality of the Year since Tommy Simpson, who won the UCI Road World Championships, in 1965.

After accepting the trophy from four-time Olympic gold medallist Michael Johnson, Hoy, 32, said, “

I’m just overwhelmed. This is incredible.” His victory may have delivered the third suprise in as many years, after equestrian Zara Phillips in 2006 and boxer Joe Calzaghe in 2007 but, in his defence, he had just become the most successful male Olympic cyclist of all time. In fact, he would remain that way until his former teammate Jason Kenny (by then Sir Jason) won the keirin event at the postponed 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo in 2021 to increase his tally to seven gold medals.

Hoy retired from competitive cycling in 2013 as a six-time Olympic champion but, as a bleak footnote, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2023, which he later revealed to be terminal. Nevertheless, he attended Sports Personality Of The Year 2024 along with his wife Sarra Kemp and delivered a heartfelt speech, in which he praised the dedication shown by Olympic and Paralympic athletes. He said, “1460 days of pure obsession for a single event. But let me tell you, it’s worth it.”

2010 Sir Anthony McCoy

Admin June 5, 2025

Sir Anthony McCoy was knighted in the 2016 New Year Honours, having won the National Hunt Jockeys’ Championship 20 years in a row prior to his retirement, with 4,358 winners to his name, the previous April. However, in 2010, he finally won the Grand National, after 14 previous unsuccessful attempts, and was promoted to favouritism for BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

He duly won the prestigious title, beating darts player Phil Taylor and heptathlete Jessica Ennis into second and third place respectively, from a shortlist that also included cyclist Mark Cavendish, diver Tom Daley, boxer David Haye, golfers Graeme McDowell and Lee Westwood, cricketer Graeme Swann and skeleton bobsleigh racer Amy Williams. In so doing, McCoy, who hails from Moneyglass in Country Antrim, Northern Ireland, became the first jockey – and just the fourth equestrian, after David Broome in 1960, the Princess Royal in 1971 and her daughter, Zara Phillips, in 2006 – to win the award. McCoy, himself, had finished in third place in 2002, the year in which he Sir Gordon Richards’ long-standing record of 269 winners in a season, set in 1947, as had fellow jockey Lanfranco “Frankie” Detttori in 1996.

Despite polling over 40% of the public vote, after accepting the trophy from Cesc Fàbregas, McCoy, 36, said, “I am dazed,” before continuing, “This is an unbelievable feeling to be standing in front of so many amazing sports people. To win this award is very surreal. Without the help of so many people I wouldn’t be here.”

McCoy went on to reflect on the moment he won the Grand National on Don’t Push It, owned by John ‘J.P.’ Mcmanus and trained by Jonjo O’Neill, who were both in attendance at the ceremony. He said, “When I started off as a jockey I wanted to be champion jockey and having been lucky enough to be champion jockey for 15 years I wanted to break records.I just felt that winning the Grand National, as the biggest horse race in the world, I felt it was just an unbelievable day.” His victory at Aintree on April 10, 2010 reportedly cost bookmaker William Hill an estimated £10 million.

2006 Zara Phillips

Admin June 5, 2025

In 2006, Zara Phillips became the second member of her family to be voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year, following in the footsteps of her mother, the Princess Royal, who received the same accolade after winning the European Eventing Championships at Burghley on her horse, Doublet, back in 1971.

Phillips, herself, became individual European Champion at Blenheim on her horse, Toytown, in 2005 and won the individual competition at the World Eventing Championships in Aachen, Germany on the same horse in 2006. Her performances in Aachen also helped the Great Britain team – which also comprised Daisy Dick on Spring Along, William Fox-Pitt on Tamarillo and Mary King on Call Again Cavalier – to a silver medal in the team competition.

Presented with the prestigious silver trophy by Sir Steve Redgrave, Phillips said, rather shakily, “I wasn’t expecting it at all. It’s amazing to be here with all these amazing sports people. I have sat there in awe of everyone. To win is amazing. It’s fantastic for the sport.”

The bookmakers weren’t expecting it, either, having made golfer Darren Clarke – who won all three of his Ryder Cup matches at the K Club in County Kildare in September just six weeks after the death of his wife, Heather – hot favourite to win. Gymnast Beth Tweddle, who became British, European and World Champion on the uneven bars in 2006, finished third in the public vote. Indeed, in a pre-recorded message ahead of BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2023 – which marked the seventieth anniversary of the award, devised in 1954 – Phillips confessed to her disbelief at winning. She said she felt like, “Is this a joke?”

Zara Phillips – by then Zara Tindall, having married England rugby union player Mike Tindall in July 2011 – went of to compete at the 2012 London Olympic Games on her horse High Kingdom, winning a silver medal in the team competition. However, at the time, her BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award was not favourably received by everyone. Many viewers complained that, as a royal, she received preferential treatment over other deserving nominees, not least boxer Joe Calzaghe, who would be voted the winner in 2007.

2002 Paula Radcliffe

Admin June 5, 2025

In 2002, long-distance runner Paula Radcliffe comfortably justified favouritism to win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award, finishing some way ahead of footballer David Beckham, jockey Tony McCoy, boxer Lennox Lewis and rugby union player Jonny Wilkinson in the public phone poll. In so doing, she became to first woman since middle-distance runner Liz McColgan, in 1991, to be presented with the coveted trophy.

Indeed, 2002 was the year in which Radcliffe shed finally her “always the bridesmaid” tag to become an out-and-out champion. In March, she won the senior women’s race at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Dublin, thereby becoming the first woman in a decade to successfully defend her title. In July, she won the gold medal in the women’s 5,000 metres at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester and, in August, another in the women’s 10,000 metres at the European Athletics Championhips in Munich.

On the road, in April, Radcliffe attempted the London Marathon for the first time, winning in a time of 2:18:56, world record for a women’s only race amd just nine seconds outside the overall world record. In October, on just her second attempt over 26 miles and 385 yards, she won the Chicago Marathon in a time of 2:17:56, beating the previous world record, held by Kenyan Catherine Ndereba, who finished second, by nearly a minute and a half.

Reflecting on her annus mirabilis, Radcliffe, 28, said, “My training for the London Marathon proved very significant and was the springboard to my whole year. It gave me the physical strength to go on and achieve everything else, and that is why I shall be defending my title.” That she did, in no uncertain terms. On April 13, 2003, she won the London Marathon for a second time, improving her own world record by over two minutes with a time of 2:15:25, which would stand for 16 years, until broken by another Kenyan, Brigid Kosgei, with a time of 2:14:04, in the Chicago Marathon on October 13, 2019. Of course, Radcliffe would win the London Marathon for a third time in 2005.