Sports Personality of the Year: Keely Hodgkinson
Young Personality of the Year: Luke Littler
Coach of the Year: Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows
World Sport Star of the Year: Armand ‘Mundo’ Duplantis
Team of the Year: Wigan Warriors
Helen Rollason Award: Dr Mark Prince
Lifetime Achievement Award: Mark Cavendish
Unsung hero: Jean Paton
Hodgkinson wins Sports Personality crown
The Olympic 800m champion, Keely Hodgkinson, has been voted the BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 2024. The award caps a brilliant 12 months for the 22-year-old in which she claimed gold at the Paris Olympics, successfully defended her European title and set a new British record of 1min 54.61 seconds that made her the sixth fastest woman in history.
Hodgkinson’s success makes it an unprecedented four years in a row that the award has been won by a woman, following Mary Earps in 2023, Beth Mead in 2022 and Emma Raducanu in 2021. Darts prodigy Luke Littler came second in the public vote, while England cricket star Joe Root was third at Tuesday’s ceremony in Salford.
After being announced as the winner by Sir Chris Hoy, Hodgkinson said on stage: “This year has been absolutely incredible for me. I achieved everything I set out to do on the outdoor track, which is kind of rare, so I’m so grateful to be in this position. Thank you to everyone who voted at home. I hope you all loved watching Paris just as much as I loved competing in it.”
Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows won the coach of the year award after guiding the athlete to glory, and Hodgkinson said: “I’m actually more excited for my coach to be honest, because I wouldn’t be where I am without him and his guidance that I have had since I was 17.” PA Media
Sports Personality of the Year: Keely Hodgkinson
Young Personality of the Year: Luke Littler
Coach of the Year: Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows
World Sport Star of the Year: Armand ‘Mundo’ Duplantis
Team of the Year: Wigan Warriors
Helen Rollason Award: Dr Mark Prince
Lifetime Achievement Award: Mark Cavendish
Unsung hero: Jean Paton
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And that is very much and entirely that. No upsets this year – Young Spoty and grown-up Spoty both went to the pre-event favourites – and no arguments either. In an Olympic year, there’s nothing like winning on the track in the Olympic Stadium to take you clear of this field. I leave you with a run-down of tonight’s winners. Bye!
Sports Personality of the Year: Keely Hodgkinson
Young Sports Personality of the Year: Luke Littler
Lifetime achievement: Sir Mark Cavendish
Team of the Year: Wigan Warriors
Coach of the Year: Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows
World Sports Star: Armand “Mondo” Duplantis
Helen Rollason Award: Dr Mark Prince
Unsung Hero: Jean Paton
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Hodgkinson makes it four years in a row that women have won the award, something that has never happened before (before that men had won 13 in a row). The previous record run (equalled last year, obviously) was three: Anita Lonsbrough, Dorothy Hyman and Mary Rand between 1962 and 1964.
And that’s it! It’s all over! Hodgkinson picks up her trophy, which is not as easy as it might sound given the size of the thing, and carries it to the front of the stage as the credits roll.
“I’m actually in a bit of shock,” Hodgkinson says. “I’m more excited for my coach to be honest, because I wouldn’t be where I am without him. I’m so grateful to be in this position.”
Keely Hodgkinson is named Sports Personality of the Year!
No surprises, as the great success story of Britain’s Olympic track team gets her reward. Luke Litter is second, Joe Root third.
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Luke Littler comes second! I thought he had a chance of snatching it in a public vote, but not to be.
Joe Root comes third, and conveniently the trophy is in Hamilton, where Harry Brook hands it over.
The award will be presented by Mary Earps, its current holder, and Sir Chris Hoy, who won it in 2008. The top three are …
And with that, we’re nearly done. Just one more job to do. Who’s going to get the big one?
“It’s hard work on a daily basis, but hopefully all our athletes would say that they have fun as well,” Meadows says.
The joint coaches of the year are Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows, the coaches of Keely Hodgkinson.
After a montage commemorating some of the sporting stars and heroes we have lost this year, the Coach of the Year award is introduced.
And the winner is Luke Littler! I mean, and with all due respect for the other two, obviously. “I’ve changed the sport of darts,” he says. “And all the other players, but I’ve played a big part of it.” Co-presenter Alex Scott follows that with: “Luke, you’re being so modest.”
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First, the Young Sports Personality of the Year award. The three shortlisted athletes for this one are the 18-year-old para-swimmer William Ellard, who won two golds and a silver at the Paralympics, the skateboarder Sky Brown, who at 16 won her second Olympic medal in Paris, and the 17-year-old darts phenomenon Luke Littler.
Voting is now closed. Please stop voting. Yes, you, put your phone down. We should know our winner in five minutes or so.
Perhaps he should have planned something. “Look, I’m waffling on now,” he concludes (eventually). “But it’s very, very nice. Thankyou.”
“That was an amazing reception,” Cavendish says. “I knew I was getting it, obviously, but I don’t really know what to say. I didn’t plan anything. I’m not very good at public speaking, that’s why I ride a bike for a living. Or did.”
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“I was never the strongest bike rider,” Cavendish deadpans. “Because of that, I had to learn how to race.”
Now, time to give Sir Mark Cavendish, the Manx Missile, his lifetime achievement award.
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Team of the Year is Wigan Warriors, who won the second quadruple of their history by snaffling the League Leaders’ Shield, Grand Final, Challenge Cup and World Club Challenge. “The club’s in good shape, we’re very aligned, we’re very connected, we’ve got great ambition and we want success,” says coach Matt Peet.
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Welsh footballer Hayley Ladd has a quick chat about their qualification for next year’s women’s Euros, their first major tournament. “There’s been a little bit of heartache over the years to get over the line,” she says. There are a few Wales players present, sitting in front of a few members of the England team. They will play each other in the Euros in Switzerland next year, with yesterday’s draw also pitting them against France and the Netherlands in a nightmarish group.
The winner is Jean Paton, 90-year-old mainstay of Salterns Sailing Club, a kids’ sailing club in Lymington, Hampshire. There’s an article about her nomination on the website of the Lymington Times here.
Now for another award – it’s time to find out who our Unsung Hero is.
This will all be over in 40 minutes, and voting ends in about 20, so get it done if you’re so inclined.
Storey is on crutches, wearing a protective boot (wrapped in fairy lights) and generally moving extremely gingerly as she comes out. Her parents aren’t sitting alongside her, because they’re babysitting. “I was training to do some ice skating and I tripped a bit and broke my ankle,” she says. “I did it two weeks ago. I’m doing rehab like a crazy woman to try and get back quickly. I’ve been doing sport for a really long time but I absolutely love it.” She refuses to rule out having a run at LA in 2026, by which time she’ll be 50.
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Sarah Storey’s daughter Louisa presents her microdocumentary, looking at the career of someone who won her first Paralympic gold when “I was minus 21”. It ends with her laying out her mum’s 19 – nineteen – gold medals.
Oh hang on, not yet. Dame Sarah Storey hasn’t had her turn yet. That, presumably, will follow the Paralympic highlight reel currently being broadcast.
So this is the bit, after all of the Spoty contenders have been introduced and before voting closes, when time just has to be filled with whatever while the outcome is decided.
A group of British Olympians takes the stage. Bryony Page, who won trampoline gold in Paris, says she would “love to compete for Team GB again” and is eyeing LA 2028. Another gold medal-winner, the rower Imogen Grant, who was named Athlete of the Year at the BBC’s Green Sport Awards in October, is wearing a dress made of upcycled Olympic kit.
More Olympic memories now, with Fred Sirieix, whose daughter Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix won bronze in the synchronised 10m platform, narrating the montage with, slightly weirdly, some slow-motion footage of him miming Olympic activities while in bed.
And here is Yee, sitting with his mum, dad and his partner. He looks quite a lot like his dad. “It’s all about not giving up. These guys have taught me not to give up and never to give in, and in particular in that moment, I just gave my best. I’d come such a long way, worked so hard. I’d got the silver in Tokyo and that was amazing, but I didn’t want to settle.”
The Alex Yee microdocumentary follows. What a race that Paris triathlon was, such drama at the end as he conjured gold from somewhere.
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Hodgkinson sits on the sofa with her parents and coaches. “I think growing up I always knew I had a bit of a talent in the sport and I love competing,” she says. “You start to dream as you get into your teenage years, and it went on from there. I just love that competitive environment. It’s been amazing ever since Paris. It’s just crazy to think, if a little girl has watched that and been inspired to get into athletics, that’s crazy.”
Sir Chris Hoy turns up to say a few inspirational words about the Olympics and Paralympics, before Keely Hodgkinson becomes the fourth Spoty contender to get focused on. Each of them has had a few minutes of microdocumentary, all of them inevitably beautifully produced – this is the BBC’s absolute forte - to tell the story of their life, career and latest success.
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Jude Bellingham gets a moment in the spotlight, though it’s just another video montage. He too is not present – Real Madrid play Pachuca in the Intercontinental Cup final in Qatar tomorrow, which is a decent excuse - and hasn’t even phoned in - it is 10.45pm there, and I’m not sure when his bedtime is. Besides, Real Madrid players only turn up to awards ceremonies if they’re definitely going to win.
Boxing and Euro 2024 both get the montage treatment, Vicky McClure doing the voiceover in the latter. I appear to have forgotten how dramatic they were. I guess we tend to block out that kind of trauma.
Mondo Duplantis is named World Sport Star. Seems a good choice, the pole vaulter has had a frankly ludicrous 2024. “I’m so honoured,” he says in a video message. “So sorry I couldn’t be in attendance tonight, I’m back here in the States preparing for the up and coming season but I know this award means a lot.”
What is it going to take to overtake Phil Taylor as the greatest of all time, he’s asked. “Well, 16 World Championships at least,” he says.
Luke Littler is the next Spoty contender to have a chat, sitting on a sofa on the stage, alongside his mum and dad. Apparently he was the third most Googled man in the UK this calendar year. “Our lives have changed and we’ve had to get on with it. We’ve had to deal with the kind of fame we do have,” he says.
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“I’m not often short of words,” Prince says. “I’m always up inspiring and motivating other people and this is really overwhelming for me. I don’t do the things I do for anything. I just want to let Nikki Rollason know, it’s such a blessing receiving this award. Your mum was an awesome individual and I’m going to continue inspiring other people in her name.”
It’s Dr Mark Prince, the former boxing champion whose son Kiyan, a talented 15-year-old footballer in the QPR youth scheme, died after being stabbed in 2006. He has since launched the Kiyan Prince Foundation, which “works with young people, especially those at risk of involvement in youth violence, and supports them to use their power of choice to value their own lives and the lives of others”. Here’s a bit of what Prince says in the pre-presentation video:
I can tell you about that day. I got a phone call from Kiyan’s sister, saying he’s been stabbed. I had to listen to a doctor say he wanted to keep him alive but he just couldn’t do it. I don’t think we’re build for things like that. The only control I really have is how I deal with the situations I find myself in, and after Kiyan died I thought, why don’t I do this for my son? Remember diamonds, even when they’re muddy and messed up, don’t lose their value.
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An award! The Helen Rollason Award will be first to be handed out.
Root has a live chat from his hotel in New Zealand. It’s just gone 8am there, the morning after the Test series ended, and he’s looking a little bleary-eyed. Only once, in 2021, has he scored more runs than he has this year. “It’s been a hell of a journey, but it seems to get more and more enjoyable,” he says.
Jimmy Anderson on Root. You won’t get many better quotes than this.
I can’t think of a better role model for the game of cricket. I’ve got children, I’d love for them to grow up and be that sort of person.
So far there’s been a quick sprint through the year in rugby union, and a quick chat with Ellie Kildunne looking ahead to next year’s World Cup. And now the first profile of a SPOTY contender: Joe Root.
Some campaigning is going on.
It's time! 📽
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) December 17, 2024
Vote ROOTY for #SPOTY! 🏏
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Voting for #SPOTY is now open. Good luck, @BellinghamJude! 🙌
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Landline: 09015 22 82 01
Mobile: 6 22 82 01
You know what to do. #SPOTY pic.twitter.com/jF232446vI
— British Athletics (@BritAthletics) December 17, 2024
Voting for the main award is open now. If you’re online, which it appears you are, you can vote here.
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It’s started! With, inevitably, an emotional montage. David Harewood on voiceover duty.
We’ve also got some great things to read on the other athletes nominated for the main award. Here’s a selection:
Jude Bellingham
Ben Fisher’s profile of the England and Real Madrid ace:
And Barney Ronay’s appreciation of the midfielder:
Luke Littler
Donald McRae interviews the darts prodigy:
And Jonathan Liew’s piece written when Littler reached the World Darts final:
Joe Root
Here’s Donald McRae’s interview with Root, published last month:
And Ali Martin’s response to Root passing Alastair Cook to become England’s all-time leading Test run-scorer:
Dame Sarah Storey
Here’s Don’s 2021 interview:
And Tanya Aldred on her 19th Paralympic gold and 30th medal overall:
Keely Hodgkinson
And here’s Sean Ingle’s interview from 2021:
And Andy Bull’s piece from the Stade de France after she finally turned her golden dream into reality:
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… While Sean Ingle had a few words with big prize nominee Alex Yee:
And here’s his report on Yee’s golden moment in Paris:
Some pre-Spoty reading: Donald McRae had a chinwag with lifetime achievement award-winner Mark Cavendish, and then wrote this about it:
Hello world!
Buckle up, we have two hours of sporting fun/hell ahead of us, depending on your point of view, as we look back on a year that brought us the Paris Olympics and Paralympics, someone called Raygun, England’s men kind of flunking Euro 2024 while still reaching the final, England’s men kind of flunking a T20 World Cup while still reaching the semi-finals, the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Glasgow, 15-year-old Mika Stojsavljevic becoming the first British girl to win a junior grand slam title since 2009 (and a couple of senior Grand Slam singles titles for each of Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka), Manchester City winning stuff for a change, Emma Hayes leaving Chelsea, Jude Bellingham coming third in the Ballon d’Or voting, Ireland winning the Six Nations, Lando Norris finishing second to Max Verstappen in the Formula One world championship, Lukes Humphries and Littler in the World Darts final and further world championships in, among other things, aerobic gymnastics, beach handball, beach soccer, biathlon, biathlon, bobsleigh, canoe marathon, canoe polo, canoe sprint, chess, curling, cyclo-cross, diving, field archery, figure skating, flag football, ice hockey, indoor bowls, judo, luge, modern pentathlon, orienteering, parkour, race walking, road bicycle racing, rowing, skeleton, ski flying, speed skating (four of them!), squash, team table tennis, track cycling, weightlifting and wrestling. Plus the scandal-ravaged conkers competition, obviously.
Tonight we’ll ignore most of those things because British people weren’t that good at them, and focus on celebrating some of the nation’s great success stories. Along the way eight awards will be presented, namely:
The Helen Rollason Award, given “for outstanding achievement in the face of adversity”.
The Unsung Hero Award, given to a volunteer who has a significant impact on sports participation in their community. The winner will be chosen from the 15 people who have received regional awards – read more about them on the BBC website here.
A lifetime achievement award, which we already know will go to Sir Mark Cavendish.
Coach of the Year, won in each of the last four years by football managers and currently held by Pep Guardiola.
Team of the Year, won in each of the last four years by whichever football team was managed by the Coach of the Year and so currently held by Manchester City.
World Sport Star of the Year, for which six athletes have been shortlisted: the Swiss para athlete Catherine Debrunner, Swedish pole-vault deity Armand Duplantis, the Dutch Olympic women’s marathon champion, and 10,000m and 5,000m bronze-medalist, Sifan Hassan, French swimming sensation Leon Marchand, American basketball ace Caitlin Clark and her compatriot, the needs-no-introduction gymnast Simone Biles.
Young Sports Personality of the Year, for which the three shortlisted athletes are the 18-year-old para-swimmer William Ellard, who won two golds and a silver at the Paralympics, the skateboarder Sky Brown, who at 16 won her second Olympic medal in Paris, and the 17-year-old darts phenomenon Luke Littler.
And finally the Sports Personality of the Year, for which the nominees are triathlete Alex Yee, para cyclist Dame Sarah Storey, the very same Luke Littler who will presumably have already pocketed the Young Sports Personality of the Year award, Real Madrid and England’s Jude Bellingham, record-obliterating cricketer Joe Root, fresh from being England’s best player in a Test match yet again, and pre-event favourite Keely Hodgkinson, who won a brilliant gold over 800m in Paris.
The great and the good of the world of sport are gathering as I type in Salford, with the ceremony starting at 7pm GMT and ending two glorious, joyful, miserable, interminable (delete as appropriate) hours later. Welcome!
