Who will win Sports Personality of the Year?

As we approach the BBC’s 71st Sports Personality of the Year awards ceremony, we reflect on the standout sporting achievements of 2024. In a year that featured both the Olympics and the Paralympics, there will be no shortage of dramatic action to dissect. Tune in to BBC1 on 15 December for a star-studded event from Salford. 

The 2024 shortlist is due to be announced in early December. On the night of the ceremony, the winner will be determined by a public vote. The bookmakers’ top contenders at the time of print were: 

1. Keely Hodgkinson: In an Olympic year it would perhaps be fitting if Team GB’s golden girl holds off the rest of the field and dips in for victory. Hodgkinson burst onto the scene at just 19 years of age at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, picking up an unexpected 800-metre silver medal. She added two world championship silvers to her collection over the next couple of years, arriving in Paris 2024 as favourite. Under the pressure of expectation, she confidently glided down the home straight for Olympic Gold. – odds 2/5

2. Luke Littler: On the same night as the 2023 SPOTY award ceremony was taking place, a spotty, unknown 16-year-old from Warrington was making his debut in round one of the World Darts Championship. Over the next three weeks, he breezed through the rounds seemingly unfazed, dispatching stars Raymond van Barneveld and Rob Cross to finish runner-up to eventual winner Luke Humphries. Since then, teenage ‘Luke The Nuke’ has won a clutch of tournaments including the World Series of Darts and, last month, the Grand Slam of Darts. Who once said that you win nothing with kids? – odds 4/1

3. Sir Mark Cavendish: The cyclist who won SPOTY in 2011 enjoyed yet another successful year, snatching a record-breaking 35th career stage win on the Tour de France which moved the ‘Manx Missile’ one ahead of Belgian cycling legend Eddy Merckx. He achieved the feat in the penultimate stage race in his final Tour de France. Magnifique! – odds 25/1

4. Dame Sarah Storey: Born in Manchester without a functioning left hand, Sarah was bullied at school and also struggled with an eating disorder. Joining a swimming club at aged 10, her coach told her that she had started too late to be good at anything. By 2004, she had completed her fourth Paralympics and collected 18 medals, including five golds in the pool. From Beijing in 2008, she transitioned to cycling and this summer in Paris was awarded with her 13th and 14th cycling gold medals. – odds 90/1

Sports bites

Darts

The Paddy Power World Darts Championship returns to Alexandra Palace from 15 December to 3 January. Thousands of fans will watch 96 players compete for the Sid Waddell Trophy and £2.5 million in prize money. Aside from the boisterous festive atmosphere, darts never fails to produce dramatic sporting theatre.

The bookmakers are predicting another all-Luke final, as seen last year when world number one Humphries took the crown to put a stop to wonderkid Littler’s fairytale. However, Littler avenged that defeat by beating Humphries in the Premier League Final in May, which sets things up nicely!

This season has already produced a few upsets in other major dart’s events, particularly Belgian Dimitri Van den Bergh becoming a surprise winner at the UK Open in March and Mike De Decker coming from nowhere to win the World Grand Prix in October. As always, if mighty Michael van Gerwen is on top form he’s near-on unstoppable. Let’s play darts!

Horse racing

Every Boxing Day since 1947 has brought the sporting world a welcome late present – the King George VI Chase. This is a grade one, three-mile steeplechase held at Kempton Park and now regarded as the second-most prestigious jump race in England behind the Cheltenham Gold Cup. A race that’s steeped in history, and one that the great Kauto Star won five times and Desert Orchid won on four occasions.  

The entries for this year’s race have been released, with  the Willie Mullins’ trained Gaelic Warrior, hugely impressive winner of the Arkle at Cheltenham in March, heading up the betting market. The surprise 2023 winner Hewick also runs again in a typically high-class field.