Sports Personality of the Year

A focus on sporting achievement

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2007 Joe Calzaghe

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In 2007, boxer Joe Calzaghe was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year, thereby becoming the first Welsh sportsperson since showjumper David Broome in 1960 to win the award. Calzaghe beat the bookmakers’ favourite, racing driver Lewis Hamilton, into second place and fellow pugilist Ricky Hatton into third, with tennis player Andy Murray, athletes Christine Ohuruogu and Paula Radcliffe, rugby union players. Jason Robinson and Jonny Wilkinson, golfer Justin Rose and motorcycle racer James Toseland completing the 10-strong shortlist of nominees.

 

Accepting the familiar silver-plated trophy from former undisputed world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis in Las Vegas, Calzaghe said, “I am very proud of it, it’s a tremendous achievement. To get two boxers in the top three – wow!” He had been at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas the previous evening to witness Hatton suffer a tenth-round technical knockout by Floyd Mayweather Jr., thereby bringing his 43-fight winning streak to an end.

 

Calzaghe, himself, fought twice in 2007, successfully defending his World Boxing Organisation (WBO) super middleweight title with a third-round technical knockout of Peter Manfredo Jr. at the Principality Stadium, Cardiff in April and doing so again, as well as winning the World Boxing Association (WBA) and World Boxing Council (WBC) super middleweight titles, with a unanimous points decision over Mikkel Kessler at the same venue in November. In the wake of the latter contest, Kessler said, “I don’t think his power is really, really hard, but it confuses you when he hits you 20 times.”

 

At the time of winning the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, Calzaghe, 35, had already been a world champion for a decade, having orginally won the vacant WBO super middleweight title with a unanimous points decision over Chris Eubank at the Sheffield Arena, Sheffield in October 1997,and won all 44 of his professional fights. Having succcessfully defended the WBO title 21 times, he fought just twice more, winning non-title fights, at light heavyweight, against Bernard Hopkins in Las Vegas and Roy Jones Jr. in New York in 2008. He retired the following year, as one of the most accomplished British boxers in modern history and with the rare distinction of an undefeated 46-0-0 professional record.

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”.

2017 – Sir Mo Farah

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Born Hussein Abdi Kahin in what is now Somaliland, Sir Mohamed Farah, universally known as Sir Mo Farah, was knighted for services to athletics in the 2017 New Years Honours. He was also voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2017, beating motorcycle racer Jonathan Rea into second place and paralympian Jonnie Peacock into a narrow third, just ahead of boxer Anthony Joshua. Farah had previousy been shortlisted for the award no fewer than five times, finishing third behind cyclist Mark Cavendish in 2011.

 

Farah, 34, had won his third successive 10,000m gold medal at the World Athletics Championships in London the previous August, following victories in Moscow in 2013 and Beijing in 2015. Indeed, he also won the 5,000m at the 2011 World Athletics Championships in Daegu, completed the 5,000m/10,000m double in Moscow and Beijing and did likewise in two successive Olympic Games, in London in 2012 and in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

 

Farah, who accepted the award by video link from the Sir Mo Farah Athletics Track at St. Mary’s University in Twickenham, where he was once a student, apologised for being unable to attend the ceremony in person. He said, “I am sorry I could not be there. My kid has been not well.” Speaking on his behalf, former athlete Michael Johnson told the audience at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, “It’s well deserved. Over the years he’s dominated, he’s out there by himself and always got the tactics right.”

 

Farah did seem genuinely surprised to become the first long-distance runner since Paul Radcliffe, in 2002, to be voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year. The video link to Twickenham cut out prematurely but, clearly emotional, he told his local audience, “It is pretty amazing and hard to think about. I didn’t imagine I was ever going to win this, but anything can happen. If you work hard you can achieve your dreams.I just cannot believe I have won.” Farah bid farewell to competitive athletics in the Great North Run in September 2023, but he remains the most successful male track distance runner in history.