The Credentials of the Big Six BBC Sports Personality Candidates
Gold medalists from the Summer Olympics occupy the top three places in the 2021 Sports Personality of the Year betting list. Previous winners Lewis Hamilton and Mark Cavendish are in close contention. Britain’s all-time most successful Paralympian, Sarah Storey, rounds out the top six in the betting market.
England lost the Euro 2020 decider and Wimbledon was a washout. But 2021 has been a great year for British sport. There is plenty more sport to come before mid-December when BBC television viewers are asked to decide whose achievements are most deserved of the Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY) award.
After finally winning an Olympic gold medal Tom Daley, favorite to win the 2021 SPOTY award, unwound by knitting as he watched the Women’s three-meter Springboard final. ©GettyImages
Tom Daley is the current favorite to take the coveted prize, but favorites do have a poor recent record in the SPOTY. Ignoring this form-pointer, the diver’s claims are very strong. Here are his credentials and those of his SPOTY rivals.
Tom Daley 6/4
The diver won the Young Sports Personality of the Year award in 2008, 2009, and 2010. Almost every year since he has been towards the top of the betting for the primary SPOTY accolade at some point. However, he has not been a shortlisted nominee for the past ten years.
Daley has been the subject of numerous documentaries and made countless TV appearances during the past 15 years. Always a popular character, this summer he truly won the hearts of the British public by winning Olympic gold in the men’s 10-meter Synchronized Platform diving event at the Tokyo Olympics.
This was Daley’s fourth Olympics. Now aged 27, Plymouth’s finest ever sportsman has been an Olympian for almost half his life. He had previously won bronze medals in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, but it did appear that his chance of collecting an Olympic gold medal had passed him by.
The addition of a second medal in Tokyo – a bronze in the Individual 10-meter Platform event days later – and images of his knitting while sat poolside watching the Women’s three-meter Springboard final have combined to make him a strong favorite for the SPOTY 2021 title.
Jason Kenny 5/1
Cyclists have won the SPOTY award four times in the past 13 years. Amongst those winners were Olympic gold medalists Chris Hoy (2008) and Bradley Wiggins (2012). Jason Kenny fans will be hoping that trend continues.
In the Keirin final, on the concluding day of the Summer Olympics, Kenny claimed his seventh career gold. Now in the possession of nine medals in total, he is the most decorated British Olympian ever.
Kenny has won at least one gold medal at four consecutive Olympic Games. He took his first title in the team sprint in Beijing, before winning team and individual sprints at both London and Rio. He also won the Keirin crown five years ago in Brazil.
In praise of his sporting achievements, Boris Johnson used Twitter described him as “the greatest British Olympian ever.” There is no saying if the Prime Minister’s acknowledgment and approval will work for or against Kenny when the voting opens for the SPOTY award!
Adam Peaty 6/1
Adam Peaty may only be 26 but he has crammed plenty into his short life. Prior to winning Olympic gold and silver medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics, he had already set seven world records.
Afterward he was awarded an MBE, set seven more world records, and in this year’s Summer Olympics he became the first British swimmer to retain an Olympic title.
It could be argued his chances are thin as the last swimmer to win this award was Anita Lonsbrough in 1962. Furthermore, Peaty only received 1.5 percent of the vote when nominated for the SPOTY award in 2016.
However, in retaining his 100-meter Breaststroke title and taking a third career gold in the 4 x 100-meter Relay, his credentials are stronger this time around.
Peaty’s 6/1 price tag will still tempt many, particularly those that believe his forthcoming appearance in Strictly Come Dancing will give him additional popularity amongst BBC viewers in the run-up to December’s live SPOTY show.
Lewis Hamilton 10/1
Formula 1 drivers have an outstanding record in SPOTY having won the title eight times and been runner-up a further nine occasions.
Lewis Hamilton has proven himself very popular in the BBC’s SPOTY polls having been a four-time runner-up and twice a winner. He is the current SPOTY recipient. Currently, in a Titanic battle for Formula 1’s World Drivers’ Championship, success would bring him a record eighth world title.
If he succeeds it is sure to be a hard-fought victory – unlike his recent titles – and the competition could go down to the final race of the season on the eve of the SPOTY awards. This would give his 2021 achievements more merit than previous years and place the 36-year-old fresh in the mind of SPOTY voters.
Mark Cavendish 16/1
Another previous SPOTY winner – in 2011 when he became the first winner of the points classification in the Tour de France – Cavendish has been 2021’s Cinderella man.
At face value his 2021 Tour de France achievements are remarkable. He won the Green Jersey points classification in the famous race and took four stage victories. Given Cavendish is now 36, those results are incredible as, in cycling terms, he is a veritable dinosaur!
And then there is the back-story. Prior to this year’s ‘greatest cycle race’ Cavendish had not won a stage of any Grand Tour in almost five years. Injury and illness had seen his form vanish …and then clinical depression set in.
Mark Cavendish celebrates a stage victory in the Tour of Turkey. Greater things were to follow later in the year.
©Deceuninck – Quick-Step Cycling Team / Getty Images
As the Guardian’s cycling correspondent explained: “Most experienced cycling pundits, watching his decline, shook their heads and quietly wished he’d call it a day.”
But Cavendish refused to quit and following winless seasons in 2019 and 2020 he landed four stage victories in the 2021 Tour of Turkey. Those results led to him being drafted into the Deceuninck-Quick-Step team’s Tour de France squad after their intended sprinter became injured.
Cavendish now has 34 Tour de France victories on his CV. His record currently matches the record of cycling legend Eddy Merckx.
Sarah Storey 16/1
At 43 Paralympian Sarah Storey is the oldest of the athletes in contention for SPOTY 2021. Her amazing career spans eight Paralympics beginning in 1992 when she competed as a swimmer and won two golds.
Between 1992 and the 2004 Athens Paralympic Games Storey amassed 16 medals in swimming competition before turning her attention to cycling ahead of the 2008 Beijing Paralympics. Success immediately followed and over the next three Paralympic Games she collected a further five gold medals.
This year, in the C5 Time Trial and Individual Road Race for C4 and C5 athletes, the mother of two added a further two gold medals to her bulging trophy cabinet.
Sarah Storey en-route a gold medal in the C5 Time Trial at the 2020 Paralympics. ©GettyImages
Storey now has 28 Paralympic medals, 17 of those are gold. Resultantly she has become Britain’s most successful Paralympian of all time.
Other Strong Candidates
There are many more sportspeople to consider and a lot could happen between now and December when a committee will meet to assess the merits of the candidates and shortlist the SPOTY finalists.
Potentially there could be a heavyweight boxing showdown between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua during December. Beforehand there is golf’s Ryder Cup and cricket’s T20 World Cup. Could these throw up a live SPOTY candidate?
The World Superbike Championship is currently ongoing, it concludes on November 14. In this two-wheeled motorsport, Jonathan Rea is in an exciting championship battle for the championship crown with Turkey’s Toprak Razgatlioglu.
Should Rea prevail the Northern Irishman will be a seven-time world champion. He received a SPOTY nomination in 2017 when landing the Superbike World Championship title for the third time. Rea proceeded to finish second in the voting failing to topple SPOTY recipient Mo Farah by just 2,958 votes.
The William Hill online sportsbook is offering 100/1 that Rea tops the SPOTY polls and collects the award this year. Given his 2017 performance, it is not a price to be sniffed at.
