Sports Personality of the Year

A focus on sporting achievement

June 2025

2004 Dame Kelly Holmes

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Former middle-distance runner Kelly Holmes was created Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for service to atheletics in the 2005 New Year Honours but, beforehand, had also been voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2004. Kent-born Holmes, then 34, beat rower Matthew Pinsent into second place and cricketer Andrew Flintoff into third in the public vote as predicted by the bookmakers, who made her 1/50 favourite to become the first black woman in history to win the award.

 

Holmes created one of the abiding images of the Summer Olympics in Athens with her wide-eyed, open-mouthed disbelief at winning the 800m final, which she did by 0.05 seconds from Hasna Benhassi of Morocco. Five days later, Holmes set a new British record, 3:57.90, when beating Tatyana Tomashova of Russia by 0.22 seconds to win the 1500m final. In so doing, she became just the third woman in history to complete the 800m/1500m double and the first Briton to do so since Albert Hill in Antwerp in 1920.

 

Holmes was competing in her final major championships – she announced her retirement in early December 2005 – and, ironically, the first in which was not hindered by injury. Accepting her award in White City, West London, she said, “After 20 years of dreaming, I finally got my dream once not twice. This is the biggest sporting honour your country can give you and for that I would like to thank the public for voting for me.

 

Of course, Holmes had not been devoid of success prior to Athens. In fact, she won the bronze medal, and set a new British record, in the 800m and the silver medal in the 1500m at the World Athletics Championships in Gothenburg in 1995, two years before she became a full-time athlete. She also won the silver medal over 800m at the World Athletics Championships in Paris in 2003 and the bronze medal over the same distance at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Representing England, rather than Great Britain, Holmes also won one silver and two gold medals over 1500m at the Commonwealth Games in Victoria in 1994, Kuala Lumpur in 1998 and Manchester in 2002.

 

2005 Andrew Flintoff

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In 2005, cricketer Andrew Flintoff was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year, beating ytachtswoman Ellen MacArthur into second place and footballer Steven Gerrard into third from a shortlist that also included fellow cricketer Michael Vaughan, boxer Ricky Hatton and tennis player Andy Murray. Flintoff was presented with the trophy by Ian Botham – the last cricketer to win the award, in 1981, after Jim Laker in 1956 and David Steele in 1975 – in Lahore, Pakistan at 03:00 local time.

 

Flintoff was named Player of the Series for the 2005 Ashes series, in which England eventually beat Australia 2-1, after drawn matches at Old Trafford and at The Oval, to win the coveted urn for the first time since 1986/97. He was named Player of the Match in the Second Test at Edgbaston, which England won by just two runs, and again in the Fourth Test at Trent Bridge, which England won by three wickets.

 

In the series as a whole, facing an attack that included Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne, Flintoff scored a total of 402 runs – including half centuries in both innings at Edgbaston and a century in the first innings at Trent Bridge – and was England’s leaduing wicket taker, with 24 wickets. Indeed, his Ashes performance was all the more remarkable for the fact that he had only recovered from surgery on his left ankle as recently as the previous April and suffered a further shoulder injury early in the second innings at Edgbaston.

 

At Edgbaston, Flintoff struck five sixes in his first innings total of 68 and another four in his second innings total of 73, thereby breaking the record for the number of sixes in an Ashes Test set by Bothham back in 1981. Accepting his award from the erstwhile Ashes hero live via satellite link, Flintoff said, “To be involved in the Ashes side that beat the Australians was a great thrill. The way the public got behind us was great and everyone in the side put in a real performance.” Shane Warne, who took 40 wickets in the Ashes series and was named BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year, paid homage to his great rival, saying, “He was outstanding”.