Sports Personality of the Year

A focus on sporting achievement

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2019 Ben Stokes

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In 2019, as widely anticipated, England cricketer Ben Stokes was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year, ahead of racing driver Lewis Hamilton and athlete Dina Asher-Smith. Also on the shortlist were footballer Raheem Sterling, heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson and rugby union player Alun Wyn Jones.

 

New Zealand-born Stokes, then 28, became the first cricketer to win the award since Andrew Flintoff in 2005. Accepting his award from the Princess Royal and former footballer Denis Law, Stokes said, “Two years ago [when he was arrested and tried for affray, but eventually found not guilty] was a tough time for me in my life and I’ve had so many people help me through that.” In particular, he singled out his agent, former England batsman Neil Fairbrother, whom he described as an “incredible man”.

 

Over the course of 11 ICC Cricket World Cup innings, Stokes scored 465 runs, at an average of 66.42. In the final, against New Zealand at Lord’s in July, he scored 84 not out off 98 balls, including five fours and two sixes, thereby lifting England from a perilous 86-4 to 241 all out. With the scores tied after 50 overs, for the first time in World Cup history, a ‘super over’ was required to determine the winner. Stokes contributed a further eight runs to a total of 15 in that super over and, with the scores tied again, England won the trophy on boundaries scored.

 

Further batting heroics followed a month later, in the third Ashes Test at Headingley. Skittled out for a paltry 67 in the first innings, England were set a target of 356 to win. Stokes contributed 135 not out, including a final-wicket stand of 76 with left-arm spinner Jack Leach (who contributed 1 not out off 17 balls), which earned comparison with the exploits of Ian Botham at the same venue back in 1981, giving England victory by one wicket. Australia won the fourth Test, thereby retaining the Ashes, but Stokes’ innings at Headlingley was widely recognised as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, in the history of Test cricket.

2014 & 2020 Sir Lewis Hamilton

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Sir Lewis Hamilton, who was knighted for services to motorsports in the 2021 New Year Honours, is one of the few sportspeople to have won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award more than once. He first did so in 2014 when, at the age of 29, he won the Formula One World Drivers’ Championship for the second time, thereby becoming the fourth Briton to win the world title more than once. On that occasion, Hamilton polled 34% of the public vote, comfortably ahead of golfer Rory McIlroy and athlete Jo Pavey. However, he did seem genuinely surprised to have won. Accepting the award from Kenny (now Sir Kenny) Dalglish, he said, “I want to say a huge thank you to all the people who called in, I really wasn’t expecting it.”

 

Fast forward half a dozen years, to 2020, and Hamilton was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year for a second time, following a record-breaking year. He won his fourth consecutive world drivers’ championship, making seven in all and thereby equalling the record previously set by Michael Schumacher. Victory in the Portuguese Grand Prix also took his career total to 92 Grand Prix wins, moving him ahead of Schumacher in the all-time list. In all, he won 11 of the 17 Grand Prixs contested during the delayed 2020 season and achieved three further podium finishers.

 

The then 35-year-old Mercedes driver had been the overwhelming favourite to win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award and duly outpointed footballer Jordan Henderson and jockey Hollie Doyle in the public vote, with boxer Tyson Fury, cricketer Stuart Broad and snooker player Ronnie O’Sullivan also on the shortlist. In winning the award for a second time, joined four previous multiple winners, namely Sir Henry Cooper, Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill and Sir Andy Murray.

 

Collecting the reward remotely, at his home, Hamilton was quick to express his gratitude to the British public. He said, “It’s been a long journey together. I will continue to do my part to represent the country in the best way I can.”

2021 Emma Raducanu

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Thanks in no small part to victory in the US Open in Flushing Meadows, New York City, teenage tennis player Emma Raducanu was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 2021. Raducanu, then 18, beat diver Tom Daley and swimmer Adama Peaty to the title, with footballer Raheem Sterling, boxer Tyson fury and paralympian Sarah Storey also shorlisted for the main award. Canadian-born Raducana became the first woman to win the award since Zara Tindall, née Phillips, in 2006 and the first tennis player to do so since Sir Andy Murray in 2016.

 

Despite playing in just the second Grand Slam event of her career, Emma Raducanu did not drop a set at Flushing Meadows, including during her three qualification matches, and eventually beat fellow teenager Leylah Fernandez 6-4, 6-3 in the final. In so doing, she became the first qualifier, male or female, to win a Grand Slam title in the Open Era (which officially began in 1968), the youngest Briton to win a Grand Slam title and the first British woman to win a Grand Slam singles title since Virginia Wade won at Wimbledon in 1977.

 

Speaking of Wimbledon, Raducanu was handed a wildcard into the 2021 Championships and enjoyed a dream debut in SW19, winning her first three matches in straight sets. In her fourth-round match against Ajla Tomljanović, she trailed 4-6, 0-3 before being forced to retire because of “difficulty breathing”. Nevertheless, Raducanu still became the youngest woman to reach the last 16 at Wimbledon during the Open Era.

 

Her performance was all the more remarkable for the fact that until Wimbledon she had not won a Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour match. Indeed, she did not make her main draw debut until early June, again after receiving a wildcard, in the Nottingham Open, where she lost 6-3, 6-4 to Harriet Dart in the first round. In her acceptance speech for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award, Radacanu said, “Thanks to all the fans and voters, this year has been insane. The energy this year playing at Wimbledon in front of my home crowd, that was something I’ve never felt before.”

2023 Mary Earps

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England goalkeeper Mary Earps was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2023, ahead of cricketer Stuart Broad and heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson, with jockey Frankie Dettori, wheelchair tennis player Alfie Hewett and golfer Rory McIlroy also shortlisted for the award. Nottingham-born Earps made her full international debut for the Lionesses in their final qualifying match for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, a 6-0 rout of Kazakhstan at the Astana Arena, in September 2018. However, she spent the tournament proper warming the bench as third-choice goalkeeper and subsequently fell out of favour with then England Phil Neville before being recalled to the squad by his successor Sarina Wiegman.

 

In fact, on her first appearance for the Lionesses since November 2019, Earps was named as starting goalkeeper in an 8-0 thrashing of North Macedonia at St. Mary’s in September 2021 and soon established herself as first choice between the sticks. Indeed, she played every minute of all six games in the 2022 UEFA European Women’s Football Championship, in which England beat old rivals Germany 2-1, after extra time, in the final at Wembley, thereby winning their first major tournament. Unsurprisingly she was named Goalkeeper of the Tournament.

 

At 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, Earps was once again the Lionesses’ outstanding player, playing every minute of all seven matches, keeping three clean sheets and saving a penalty from Spanish forward Jennifer Hermoso in the final at the Stadium Australia in Sydney, Australia, which England nonetheless lost 1-0 to Spain. She was, once again, rewarded with the Golden Glove for the best goalkeeper at the tournament.

 

Domestically, as first-choice goalkeeper for Manchester United, also won the Women’s Super League Golden Glove for 2022/23, having kept a record 14 clean sheets, and was subsequently named England Women’s Player of the Year for 2022/23. Collecting the Sports Personality of the Year award, Earps said, “I would not be here without my team-mates with the Lionesses and at Manchester United because we’ve achieved some incredible things over the last couple of years. While individual accolades are great, they only come after team success. This is their trophy just as much as mine.”