Keely Hodgkinson is voted BBC Sports Personality of the year.

Keely Hodgkinson is voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

TV viewers have voted for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 70 years. The award is shown live on BBC One midweek evenings from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. When it started in 1954, the TV landscape was somewhat different. BBC1 was the only channel, and many people did not have a television—my own parents first got television in 1958. You watched it live or didn’t watch it at all—video recorders, let alone viewing on demand, were unheard of.

The winner is chosen by the public’s votes. In my youth, voting was in advance by letter. In the modern world, you vote via a QR code or phone during the live program. A shortlist of six candidates is chosen by a BBC panel. It is an award that sportspeople take seriously. This year, four of the six candidates were present for the live ceremony, with the England cricketer, who took third place, participating via a live TV link from New Zealand, where he was playing.

Sport means sport, with the last 6 winners representing football/soccer, tennis, Formula One, cricket, and cycling. Three winners from skating and even a member of the royal family, Princess Anne, competed globally in equestrian eventing. Looking at the list of past winners, I was shocked to note that track and field has been the dominant sport. 18 winners have been from the sport – next best Formula 1 with eight. In terms of podium placings, our sport has had 53. What’s the next best football? It was 24. That said, Hodgkinson is only the second from our sport to win in the past 20 years. In attempting to interpret the results, one has to remember that this is a live vote by those who are watching the TV coverage, whereas in the past, it was a postal vote – how that affects things, I have no idea.

It is undoubtedly excellent publicity for track and field athletics. Keely is an engaging young woman, which certainly helps the sport’s perception. In addition to the leading award, there are several author awards, and it was good to see our sport pick up two.

Coach of the YearTrevor Painter and Jenny Meadows

World Sport StarArmand Duplantis

Of course, it’s only a TV program and a popular vote, but it certainly does our sport no harm to see Keely Hodgkinson win, leaving Real Madrid and England football star Jude Bellingham trailing in her wake. The list of previous winners below is a potted history of British athletics successes.

Previous Athletics Winners

1954 – Christopher Chataway

1955 – Gordon Pirie

1963 – Dorothy Hyman

1964 – Mary Rand

1968 – David Hemery

1972 – Mary Peters

1974 – Brendan Foster

1978  – Steve Ovett

1979 – Seb Coe

1982- Daley Thompson

1983 – Steve Cram

1987 – Fatima Whitbread

1991 – Liz McColgan

1993 – Linford Christie

1995 – Jonathan Edwards

2002 – Paula Radcliffe

2004 – Kelly Holmes

2017 – Mo Farah

Since 2015, Stuart Weir has written for RunBlogRun. He attends about 20 events a year including all most global championships and Diamond Leagues. He enjoys finding the quirky and obscure story.

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