BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award
Award for athletes, presented by BBC
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The BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award is the main award of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year ceremony, which takes place each December. The winner is the sportsperson, judged by a public vote, to have achieved the most that year. The recipient must either be British or reside and play a significant amount of their sport in the United Kingdom. The winner is selected from a predetermined shortlist. The most recent award-winner is golfer Rory McIlroy, who won the 2025 award.
| BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award | |
|---|---|
| |
| Awarded for | Excellence in sporting achievement |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Presented by | BBC Sport |
| Formerly called | Sportsview Personality of the Year |
| First award | 30 December 1954 |
| Most recent winner | Rory McIlroy (2025; Golf) |
| Website | Official website |
History
Sports Personality of the Year was created by Paul Fox, who thought of the idea while he was editor of the magazine show Sportsview. The first award ceremony took place in 1954 as part of Sportsview, and was presented by Peter Dimmock.[1] For the first show, votes were sent by postcard, and rules presented in a Radio Times article stipulated that nominations were restricted to athletes who had featured on the Sportsview programme since April. Approximately 14,500 votes were cast, and Christopher Chataway beat Roger Bannister to win the inaugural BBC Sportsview's Personality of the Year Award.[2]
Nomination procedure
The shortlist is announced a few weeks before the award ceremony, and the winner is determined on the night by a public telephone and on-line vote. Prior to 2012, a panel of 30 sports journalists each submitted a list of 10 contenders. From these contenders a shortlist of ten nominees was determined. This method was criticized following the selection of an all-male shortlist in 2011. The selection process for contenders was changed for the 2012 and subsequent awards by the introduction of an expert panel. The panel produces a shortlist that reflects UK sporting achievements on the national and/or international stage, represents the breadth and depth of UK sports and takes into account 'impact' within and beyond the sport or sporting achievement in question.
Winners
Five people have won the award more than once: tennis player Andy Murray is the only person to have won three times and the only person to have won in consecutive years, while boxer Henry Cooper and Formula One drivers Nigel Mansell, Lewis Hamilton and Damon Hill have each won twice.[3]
Princess Anne (1971) and her daughter Zara Phillips (2006) are the only award-winners to be members of the same family. The oldest recipient of the award is Dai Rees, who won in 1957 aged 44. Ian Black, who won the following year, aged 17, is the youngest winner.[3] Torvill and Dean, who won in 1984, are the only non-individual winners of the award, so in the 66 years of the award there have been 67 recipients; of these 14 have been female.[4] 17 sporting disciplines have been represented; athletics has the highest representation, with 17 recipients. Counting Torvill and Dean separately, there have been 48 English winners of the award, six Scottish,[5] five Welsh,[6] three Northern Irish,[7][8] and one Manx.
Awards by year
By sport
This table lists the total number of awards won by the winner's sport.
Accurate up to and including the 2025 award.
| Sport | First place(s) | Second place(s) | Third place(s) | Total placing(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Athletics | 19 | 14 | 21 | 54 |
| Formula One | 8 | 9 | 2 | 19 |
| Football | 7 | 7 | 10 | 24 |
| Tennis | 7 | 2 | 2 | 11 |
| Cricket | 5 | 5 | 4 | 14 |
| Boxing | 5 | 4 | 1 | 10 |
| Cycling | 5 | 1 | 0 | 6 |
| Golf | 3 | 5 | 2 | 10 |
| Figure skating | 3[nb 1] | 1[nb 1] | 0 | 4 |
| Swimming | 2 | 2 | 7 | 11 |
| Eventing | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Snooker | 1 | 4 | 2 | 7 |
| Rugby union | 1 | 4 | 2 | 7 |
| Rowing | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| Motorcycle racing | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Show jumping | 1 | 0 | 6 | 7 |
| Horse racing | 1 | 0 | 4 | 5 |
| Sailing | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Darts | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Speedway | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Diving | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Rugby league | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Triathlon | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| CART | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Curling | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Gymnastics | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Rallying | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Total | 71 | 69 | 69 | 209 |
By number of awards
The below table lists all people who have finished in the top three places more than once.
| Recipient | First place(s) | Second place(s) | Third place(s) | Total placings(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andy Murray | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Lewis Hamilton | 2 | 4 | 0 | 6 |
| Nigel Mansell | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Henry Cooper | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Damon Hill | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Steve Davis | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| Ian Botham | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| Sebastian Coe | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| David Beckham | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| Daley Thompson | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Steve Redgrave | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Linford Christie | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Dorothy Hyman | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Stirling Moss | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Ben Stokes | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Torvill and Dean | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Fatima Whitbread | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Rory McIlroy | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Steve Cram | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Tony McCoy | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Ian Black | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Mo Farah | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Andrew Flintoff | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Anita Lonsbrough | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Bobby Moore | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Michael Owen | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Paula Radcliffe | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Sally Gunnell | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Barry Briggs | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Frank Bruno | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Darren Clarke | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Bobby Charlton | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Tony Jacklin | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Denise Lewis | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Ellen MacArthur | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Jessica Ennis-Hill | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| George Best | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Jim Clark | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Marion Coakes | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Colin Jackson | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| David Wilkie | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
By gender
This table lists the total number of awards won by the winner's gender. The figure-skating couple Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean are counted as a single mixed-gender winner.
Accurate up-to and including the 2025 award.
| Gender | First place(s) | Second place(s) | Third place(s) | Total placing(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | 55 | 58 | 50 | 163 |
| Female | 16 | 11 | 20 | 47 |
| Mixed | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Total | 72 | 70 | 70 | 212 |
See also
Notes
- Torvill and Dean are the figure skating pair Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean. For the summary tables they are treated as one winner of the award.[18]