Key events
Frankie Dettori: The famous Flat Jockey may have been the first campmate voted off I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!, but don’t let that fool you – he’s a seriously popular man. The second of tonight’s nominees to get the once-over, he comes live from France, where he is on holidays with his family.
“I know how important this is for everyone, so I’m very sorry I can’t be there,” he says. “Racing to me is very important but other sports obviously appeal to a wider audience. So just to be in the final six, I already fdeel like a winner. APart from Stuart Broad, none of the other nominees were even born when I started racing.”
Token mention corner: Snooker, darts, skiing, American football, rugby league, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, the Grand National, gymnastics, curling, the Masters and marathon running are among several sports glossed over in a dinky little package.
Katarina Johnson-Thompson: The popular Scouse heptathlete put a serious, careeer-threatening achilles injury behind her to win this year’s World Championships in Budapest and is the first of tonight’s Spoty nominees to come under the microscope. “To become World Champion after evverything she’s been through is just … magic,” says Denise Lewis.
It’s gone Pete Tong early doors: The camera cuts to Gaby Logan who is, I think introducing a quick recap on the year in athletics. Somebody’s forgotten to turn her microphone on so I’m just guessing because now she’s talking to 1,500m World Champion Josh Kerr and top Paralympian Hannah Cockroft.
And it’s live! Gary gets tonight’s first word in, opening proceedings from the red carpet, followed by Alex and Clare. Unless I missed her, one suspects Gaby is keeping her powder dry on until the portentous musical introduction is over. This reporter isn’t as down with the kids as he used to be but I’d bet my bottom dollar the top DJ on decks accompanying the musicians is … well, let’s just hope that’s as Pete Tong as things go tonight. “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome your hosts for the evening Alex Scott and Clare Balding,” he says. “And Gaby Logan and Gary Lineker.”
What an honour to be shortlisted for this evening’s #SPOTY award.
You’ve made this year so special. Sport is nothing without fans. Yes, we might create the action, but you make the moment matter.
Whatever happens tonight, thank you all for making this such a year to remember. pic.twitter.com/EX2m1CMX1u
— Frankie Dettori (@FrankieDettori) December 19, 2023
Young Sports Personality of the Year
The top three contenders have already been chosen by a judging panel made up of former winners comprising Theo Walcott, Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix and Harry Aikines-Aryeetey. The shortlist was announced on Blue Peter at the beginning of the month. They are …
Mia Brookes (snowboarding): “This year has been unreal, and to get a nomination for Young Sports Personality of the year is an incredible way to sum it up,” said the 16-year-old from Cheshire. “A year ago, I’d never have believed I’d be in this position, and I’m just really grateful to everyone – my family, my coaches, the whole team – for supporting me along the way.”
Penny Healey (archery): “I feel honoured to have been shortlisted for the Young Sports Personality of the Year award!,” said the 18-year-old from Shropshire. “It’s been a great year and being nominated for this award on top of that makes it even better.”
Charlie McIntyre (wheelchair basketball): “I am absolutely honoured to have even made it on the list for the Young Sports Personality of the Year, let alone to have made it in the top three contenders,” said the 18-year-old from Essex. “It feels so amazing! I am lost for words, but I guess I would just like to thank every person who has followed or helped me along my path so far.”
Sports Personality of the Year Awards
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Sports Personality of the Year
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World Sport Star of the Year
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Helen Rollason Award
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Young Sports Personality of the Year
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Unsung Hero
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Coach of the Year
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Team of the Year
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Lifetime Achievement award
Sports Personality of the Year shortlist
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Stuart Broad (Cricket)
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Frankie Dettori (Horse Racing)
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Mary Earps (Football)
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Alfie Hewett (Wheelchair Tennis)
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Katarina Johnson-Thompson (Athletics)
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Rory Mcllroy (Golf)
BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2023
The Sports Personality of the Year Awards are upon us again. For some, they are a warm festive televisual comfort blanket, while others see them as an increasingly anachronistic exercise in box-ticking. Whatever your view, this annual orgy of often self-congratulatory backslapping is now celebrating its platinum jubilee and will tonight be hosted by BBC royalty in the form of Gary Lineker, Alex Scott, Gabby Logan and Clare Balding.
Tonight’s ceremony comes from Media City in Salford, where the good and the great of domestic and international sport will assemble, while the majority of the audience, the viewing public, will tune in from their living rooms.
An always amusing annual exercise in the generation of often inexplicable white-hot fury on the part of viewers who apparently remain oblivious to the fact it is neither compulsory viewing nor very important in the cosmic or even sporting scheme of things, Spoty remains many things to many people, all of whom are very welcome to our live coverage this evening.
In the 12 months of sporting endeavour just passed, we have seen England’s Lionesses make it to the Women’s World Cup final, Europe’s golfers winning the Ryder Cup and England being robbed (yes, robbed!) of outright victory in the Ashes through a heady mix of what can only be described as unfair dinkum on the part of both their Australian opponents and the weather.
Elsewhere, assorted representatives of Team GB enjoyed success at the World Athletics Championships, UCI Cycling World Championships, while England’s rugby players earned themselves a tip of the hat for defying the expectations of many by reaching the semi-finals of the Rugby World Cup.
In football, Manchester City hogged the limelight by securing the treble, while we can also expect to see more sedate but no less entertaining disciplines such as snooker, darts and bowls enjoy their fleeting 10 seconds of annual Spoty fame in tonight’s obligatory montages devoted to Sports We Are Obliged To Mention But Don’t Really Have Time To Dwell On This Year. For one reason or another, we can expect to see Wimbledon, the Tour de France, Formula One, the Grand National, the Open, the Derby, the Boat Race and assorted Lycra-clad athletes you’ve never heard of gadding about on ice or parallel bars get perfunctory mentions, along with whatever sport you’re really into that we’ve accidentally overlooked here.
Tonight’s Sports Personality of the Year awards shindig is scheduled to last two hours but will almost certainly feel a lot longer and will see eight different gongs handed out, culminating in the presentation of the Big One to an athlete whose ownership of a “personality” worthy of the award will subsequently be debated at great and tedious length on Twitter/X.
In a ceremony boasting more gear changes from Lineker and his co-hosts than Lewis Hamilton negotiating a hairpin bend there’ll be fun bits, sad bits, jingoistic bits, poignant bits, some music and almost certainly a wacky turn from somebody that may or may not be a famous YouTuber or James Cordon.
Whatever this evening’s soiree throws at us, we’ll have you covered and as is customary come evening’s end, we’ll still be no closer to reaching a satisfactory conclusion to the interminable debate over whether or not darts has earned the right to call itself a sport.
