The shortlist for BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2024 has been revealed as six stars are recognised for their outstanding achievements in an action-packed year of sport.
The contenders are (in alphabetical order):
- Jude Bellingham (football)
- Keely Hodgkinson (athletics)
- Dame Sarah Storey (para cycling)
BBC Sport brought people together to enjoy the biggest moments in the sporting calendar this year, now audiences will be able to reflect on them once more for the ultimate evening of celebration from 7pm on Tuesday 17 December.
They will be taken through the incredible achievements of all six contenders by presenters Clare Balding, Gabby Logan and Alex Scott, before one is crowned the winner, live on BBC One and iPlayer.
Alex Kay-Jelski, Director of BBC Sport says: “It’s a fantastic shortlist. All six of them have kept us on the edge of our seats this year, showing us how sensational they are. I’m looking forward to reliving each of their successes on the night and finding out who audiences want to be crowned BBC Sport Personality of the Year 2024.”
The judging panel for this year’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year came from the world of sport and broadcasting. The likes of Dame Laura Kenny, Iwan Thomas, Ade Adepitan, Nedum Onuoha, Rory Best and Eilidh Barbour were joined by sports journalists Laura Williamson (The Athletic) and Eleanor Crooks (PA Media) as well as Stephanie Hilborne CEO of Women in Sport. Representing the BBC were Director of Sport Alex Kay-Jelski, Head of Sport Content Philip Bernie and Executive Producer Gabby Cook.
The awards being presented on the night are:
- Sports Personality of the Year
- Lifetime Achievement Award
Votes can be cast by phone or online on the evening of Tuesday 17 December and the number to call for each contender will be announced during the programme.
Lioness hero, Mary Earps, took home the coveted title of BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2023, with England’s Test cricket hero Stuart Broad coming second and Team GB heptathlete Katrina Johnson-Thompson taking third spot.
For further information and full Terms and Conditions, visit bbc.co.uk/sportspersonality
Jude Bellingham
In his debut season at the Bernabeu, Bellingham helped Real Madrid win the La Liga title and the Champions League, contributing a remarkable 23 goals across all competitions. He also scored twice on England’s route to the Euros final, including a brilliant bicycle kick against Slovakia. His success saw him finish third in the Ballon d’Or voting, the highest position by an Englishman since Frank Lampard came second in 2005. He was named as La Liga Player of the Season and Champions League Young Player of the Season, as well as collecting the Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year award.
Keely Hodgkinson
Hodgkinson ended her wait for a first major global title in spectacular fashion by claiming 800m gold at the Paris Olympics. After a series of near misses, including silvers at the Tokyo Games and at the last two World Championships, she triumphed with a dominant victory at the Stade de France. It was Team GB’s first Olympic track title since Mo Farah’s 5000m and 10,000m double in Rio and made her only the 10th British woman to win an athletics gold at a Games. Earlier in the year she retained her 800m title at the European Championships.
Luke Littler
The darts prodigy catapulted himself to stardom on a fairytale run to the PDC World Championship final. Just months after finishing his GCSEs, and ranked a lowly 164th in the world, the then 16-year-old broke a host of records on route to reaching the final. He’s since gone on to become the youngest winner of a major PDC tournament by claiming the Premier League Darts title, while his victory at the prestigious Grand Slam of Darts made him just the fourth player in history to win 10 trophies in one season. His earnings for the year have surpassed £1m.
Joe Root
Root made history in style as he surpassed Alastair Cook’s mark of 12,472 runs to become England’s leading scorer in Test cricket with a career best 262 against Pakistan. Also in that Test, he and Harry Brook set an England record partnership of 454, while earlier in the year Root broke Cook’s milestone for the most Test centuries by an England batter. He’s now fifth on the all-time list of Test run scorers and became the first Englishman to surpass 20,000 international runs across formats. At the time of publication, he’d scored the most Test runs in 2024.
Dame Sarah Storey
Great Britain’s most successful Paralympian added two more gold medals to her incredible collection as she won cycling’s C4-C5 road race and C5 road time trial at the Paris Games. That extended her British record tally of Paralympic medals to 30, 19 of which are golds, and they came a remarkable 32 years after her first in swimming in 1992. Her success continued at the Road and Para-cycling World Championships as she again won the double of C4-C5 road race and C5 road time trial titles for a 10th time, increasing her haul of world golds to an astonishing 39.
Alex Yee
The triathlete enjoyed a stunning 2024 in which he was crowned both Olympic and world champion. At the Paris Games he produced a magnificent sprint finish to overtake New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde in the closing stages of the run to win his first individual Olympic gold. He then went on to be part of the Great Britain team that won bronze in the mixed relay. Yee’s dominance extended to the World Triathlon Series with victories in Cagliari and Weihai helping him claim the first world title of his career after a succession of near misses in recent years.
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