Mary Earps and Stuart Broad on BBC Sports Personality of the Year shortlist

Mary Earps is the favourite to win the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year award, for which the shortlist has been announced. 

The England women’s goalkeeper was one of the stand-out performers in the team that reached the final of the World Cup, where they were beaten by Spain.

The other names on the shortlist are Stuart Broad, who retired from international cricket in July; Frankie Dettori, the jockey who retired from racing in the UK; Alfie Hewett, the wheelchair tennis player who won the Australian Open and the US Open; Katarina Johnson-Thompson, who won heptathlon gold at the World Championships; and Rory McIlroy, whose highlight of the year was being part of the victorious European Ryder Cup team. 

The winner will be announced on December 19, after a public phone vote conducted during the live broadcast of the ceremony.

Last year’s winner was Beth Mead, the England women’s footballer who took the Golden Boot at that year’s European Championships. 

The shortlist is drawn up by David Coverdale (from the Daily Mail), Rob Maul (from The Sun), Charlotte Harper (from The Athletic), Katherine Grainger (the former rower who is now chair of UK Sport), Barbara Slater (the BBC’s director of sport), Philip Bernie (the BBC’s head of sport content) and Gabby Cook (Sports Personality of the Year executive). 

The contenders

Stuart Broad (8/1)
Hit a six from the last delivery he faced in Test cricket and took the final wicket of the fifth Ashes Test, which won the game and drew the series. Retired with 604 Test wickets, placing him fifth on the all-time list.

Frankie Dettori (10/1)
Won a host of big races, having announced that 2023 would be his last as a jockey in the UK. His very last meeting on UK soil was Champions Day at Ascot, at which he won the opening race and bowed out with victory in the Champion Stakes. 

Mary Earps (1/7)
Won the Golden Glove award at the Women’s World Cup, where she conceded only four goals on England’s run to the final. Also won the Golden Glove for the 2022-23 Women’s Super League season, with Manchester United.

Alfie Hewett (66/1)
Won the wheelchair singles titles at the Australian Open and the US Open and reached the final at Wimbledon. He also won another five tournaments and ended the year as the World No 1.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson (12/1)
Won her second heptathlon world title, beating Anna Hall of the USA by 20 points. That event also featured her personal best in the javelin and the 800m.

Rory McIlroy (33/1)
Was the top points-scorer for either team at the Ryder Cup, where Europe beat the USA. Also had 13 top-ten finishes on the PGA Tour and won the Scottish Open. On the DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour) he retained the Race to Dubai title. 

Johnson-Thompson should win – McIlroy should not be nominated

Mary Earps will probably be crowned Sports Personality of the Year after the Lionesses so magnificently brought women’s football to a whole new audience this summer, but they ultimately came up just short and the team award would be a more fitting accolade ahead of the Manchester City men or Europe’s Ryder Cup team. 

It is hard to ignore the incredible financial backing that City have long enjoyed when assessing their remarkable treble and, for all its allure as a one-off event, the Ryder Cup is still only ever a two-horse race.

Ahead of Earps (who is rightly in the last six) and certainly Rory McIlroy (who should not be on the shortlist), more convincing individual cases can surely be made for Stuart Broad, Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Frankie Dettori and Alfie Hewett, a 26-times Grand Slam champion in wheelchair tennis. 

Broad or Dettori would be worthy winners not just for stellar individual performances this year but for careers that stand comparison for both achievement and longevity with anyone in the history of their sports.

Had England won the Ashes, as they really should, then the overall case for Broad would probably have been unanswerable. As it is, Dettori, who was third in Sports Personality of the Year some 27 years ago in 1996, is probably more deserving following what we had thought was an extraordinary finale at the age of 52. A farewell tour that included wins in two Classics, the Gold Cup and the Champion Stakes has since been prolonged and he will ride on, largely in America, next year.

That leaves Johnson-Thompson, who would be my pick, not just for winning a second world heptathlon title in a truly global sport like athletics but for the manner of her comeback following four years of doubts after a career-threatening achilles tendon injury on her take-off left leg.

...and Jude Bellingham should have been on the shortlist

The howls of indignation over who is left off the list can already be heard. It was certainly better when there was a free vote without the BBC using a panel to narrow down the options. 

Britain’s swimmers, who have quietly enjoyed another fantastic year, will certainly feel aggrieved after Ben Proud also missed out last year, despite establishing himself as the world’s fastest front-crawl sprinter. Matt Richards is the most unfortunate this time after winning a World Championship double in the 200m freestyle and relay this summer at the age just of 20. He has the potential to be a major star at next year’s Olympics.

Then there is Jude Bellingham, who has taken European football by storm this year with his star performances for Real Madrid, as well as Josh Kerr, who did not just win the World 1,500m Championships but beat one of the sport’s all-time greats in a dramatic head-to-head finish with Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen.  

With Broad and Dettori honoured for their longevity, snooker’s world number one Ronnie O’Sullivan made a similar case by winning the UK Championships to become the oldest ‘major’ winner in his sport exactly 30 years after he won the same tournament to become the youngest.

A mention, too, for Lucy Charles-Barkley, who not only won the world women’s Ironman championship in Hawaii, but obliterated the all-time course record.