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BBC Sports Personality of the Year: I hope Olympics bias doesn’t sway the result

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BBC Sports Personality of the Year: I hope Olympics bias doesn’t sway the result

Six British athletes have been nominated for the BBC title – footballer Jude Bellingham, runner Keely Hodgkinson, darts player Luke Littler, cricketer Joe Root, Para-cyclist Sarah Storey and triathlete Alex Yee.

Despite all being thoroughly deserving of the award, there can only be one winner.

However, the race for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award 2024 titles is arguably down to three people just hours out from the event.

Why is that you may ask? Simple, it’s because 2024 was an Olympic/Paralympic year.

Olympics has 3 favourites in the running for BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award 2024

In my opinion, the 2024 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award will either go to Keely Hodgkinson, Sarah Storey or Alex Yee.

This is down to the simple fact of just how BIG the Olympics/Paralympics are.

The Olympics and Paralympics are arguably the pinnacle of sport. These events that every sportsperson around the world aspires to compete in.

Only the world’s best athletes compete at the games, meaning you have to be at the top of your sport to just be in contention for a medal.

Winning a gold medal, means you are the best in the world in your sport. Yes, sports have World Championship events every year, but this is different.

The Olympics/Paralympics only happen every four years, so you have to make sure you are in top shape at the right time.

And the fact it isn’t held as often as other sporting events also adds gravitas to the games and the meaning behind a win.

Keeley Hodgkinson

So will it be Keeley Hodgkinson who won gold in the 800m at the Olympic Games in Paris after winning silver in Tokyo back in 2020?

To add weight to this achievement, this was Team GB’s first Olympic track title since Mo Farah’s 5,000m and 10,000m double in Rio in 2016.

She is also just the 10th British woman to win an athletics gold at an Olympics.

Sarah Storey

Britain’s most successful Paralympian added two more gold medals to her incredible career tally at the Paris Paralympic Games in 2024.

Sarah Storey boasts a career tally of 30 Paralympic medals. (Image: Andrew Matthews/PA) Storey won the C4-C5 road race and C5 road time trial at the Paris Games, extending her tally of Paralympic career medals to 30, 19 of which are golds.

The 47-year-old also increased her haul of world golds to 39 in 2024 after victories in the C4-C5 road race and C5 road time trial titles (for a 10th time) at the Road and Para-cycling World Championships.

Alex Yee

As for triathlete Yee, he has also enjoyed a stellar 2024 in which he was crowned both Olympic and world champion.

He also won bronze with Team GB in the mixed relay at the Olympic Games in Paris.

The others

Outside of the Olympians/Paralympians, a case could definitely be made for teenage darts sensation Luke Littler winning the BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2024.

Littler has taken the darts world by storm in 2024.

He burst onto the scene in January making the PDC World Championship final (a match he lost 7-4 to Luke Humphries, who has not been nominated).

However, to put this achievement into perspective, at the time he was only 16-years-old, had just months earlier finished his GCSEs and was ranked 164th in the world.

Since then, the now 17-year-old has shown the darts world that the ‘fairytale run’ at the world champs was no fluke, claiming 10 trophies.

This includes becoming the youngest winner of a major PDC tournament with victory in the Premier League Darts and a win at the prestigious Grand Slam of Darts.

Luke Littler burst on to the world darts scene earlier this year as a 16-year-old.Luke Littler burst onto the world darts scene earlier this year as a 16-year-old. (Image: Zac Goodwin/PA Wire) On top of all that his earnings for the year have surpassed £1 million and he is on track to break the record for the most 180s in a season. 

Meanwhile, cricketer Joe Root officially became England’s best-ever test batsman in 2024, surpassing Sir Alastair Cook as the highest run scorer in tests for his country.

He is now fifth on the all-time list of Test run scorers and became the first Englishman to surpass 20,000 international runs across formats, making him arguably England’s best batsman ever in all formats.

Root (at the time of writing) has also scored the most Test runs of any player in 2024.

While mention must be made of Bellingham as well, an athlete I’m sure will win BBC Sports Personality of the Year at some point, if not in 2024.

At the age of just 21, in his debut season at Real Madrid, Bellingham helped his side win La Liga and the Champions League, contributing 23 goals in all competitions.

The midfielder also scored for England in their Euro 2024 campaign.

Those exploits meant he finished third in the Ballon d’Or voting – the highest position by an Englishman since Frank Lampard came second in 2005, and was named La Liga Player of the Season and Champions League Young Player of the Season.

Can we just name a six-way joint winner in 2024?

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So who wins?

I think Luke Littler deserves to be crowned 2024 BBC Sports Personality of the Year for what he has managed to achieve in darts at such a young age.

But I feel like the fact that it is an Olympic/Paralympic year might sway the judges a little, and the BBC Award will be given to Alex Yee for his exploits, not just at the Olympics but also in the World Triathlon Series.

The BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award 2024 will take place on Tuesday, December 17. You can watch the event on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from 7pm.

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