Perhaps surprisingly considering it was an Olympic year, only six nominees have been named for this year’s Sports Personality of the Year. Diver Tom Daley, boxer Tyson Fury, swimmer Adam Peaty, tennis player Emma Raducanu, footballer Raheem Sterling and cyclist Dame Sarah Storey will be up for the historic award live on BBC One Sunday, 19th December in Salford.
This means that there is no place on the list for the likes of Mark Cavendish, Tom Dean and Lewis Hamilton who have all been ‘snubbed’ from this year’s nominees.
And it’s fair to say that viewers have been surprised by some of those names not listed.
At the start of 2021 cyclist Mark Cavendish was considering retirement from the sport before taking part in this year’s Tour de France. Cavendish won four stages during the Tour, making him the joint record holder for wins on the Tour along with Belgian Eddy Merckx.
Good luck to the nominees of @BBCSPOTY & congratulations for all your inspiring successes this year. Great year for British sport! https://t.co/ZN5Zzsb4cu
— Mark Cavendish (@MarkCavendish) December 13, 2021
British Swimming enjoyed their best Olympics ever in Tokyo and while Adam Peaty has been nominated, his teammates Tom Dean, Duncan Scott and James Guy have been overlooked. Dean and Scott won the gold and silver in the 200m freestyle as well as winning gold in the men’s 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay together with James Guy and Matt Richards. Guy won a second gold in the mixed 4 × 100 metre medley relay while Scott won a further three silver medals during the games.
Lewis Hamilton has also not been nominated after losing out to Max Verstappen in the Formula 1 World Championship despite Hamilton breaking the record number of race poles and wins and becoming the first driver to win 100 races in the sport.
World number one darts player Gerwyn Price had a historic year becoming the first Welsh World Darts Champion and followed that up by winning the World Cup for Wales with Johnny Clayton.
Controversially Tyson Fury is one of the names that has been nominated for the award. In 2020 Fury asked to be taken off the list of nominees saying: “This is a message for the BBC on their SPOTY award: Please take me off your list. I am the people’s champion and have no need for verification or any awards.” Fury has previously threatened to sue the BBC if he is nominated for the award again.
Emma Raducanu is the clear favourite to win the award with some bookmakers having her at odds as short as 1/20. The 19 year old produced history after winning the US Open and in doing so becoming the first qualifier in the Open era to win a Grand Slam title and ending a 44 year wait for a British women’s Slam Champion.
Gary Lineker, Clare Balding, Gabby Logan and Alex Scott will present the 68th edition of the award.