BBC SPOTY 2023

[maidstonevillain]

Are there any shortlists? Haven't seen anything.
England ladies football poss the favourite.
My recollection is "team" is a very loose term.
Didn't Torvil and Dean once win it because there are two of them?

[Axl Rose]

Surely Villa must win team of the year.

Next year after we've won the treble.

England will probably win it for getting to the semi-finals of the Euros.

😂

[kippaxvilla2]

Thinking about it it’s bound to be the Ryder cup team.

[PeterWithesShin]

England goalkeeper Mary Earps has been voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2023.

Earps, 30, was the Lionesses' standout player as they reached a first World Cup final in the summer and was rewarded with the Golden Glove for the best goalkeeper at the tournament.

She is the second women's footballer in succession to win the BBC award.

England cricketer Stuart Broad was second, with world heptathlon champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson third.

Jockey Frankie Dettori, wheelchair tennis player Alfie Hewett and golfer Rory McIlroy were also shortlisted for the award by a panel of experts, with the winner decided by a public vote.

Who else was honoured at Sports Personality 2023?
Helen Rollason Award: Fatima Whitbread

Coach of the Year: Pep Guardiola

Team of the Year: Manchester City

Young Sports Personality of the Year: Mia Brookes

Lifetime Achievement: Sir Kenny Dalglish

Unsung Hero: Des Smith

World Sport Star: Erling Haaland

[dcdavecollett]

Hope nobody mentioned the 115 alleged financial offences that funded Pep's 'greatness'.

[olaftab]

SPOTY is just shit and needs to be binned along with the Question of Sport.

[olaftab]

And I see that Mary Earps was so excited about being  there that she forgot to get dressed.

[Rory]

SPOTY is just shit and needs to be binned along with the Question of Sport.

Correct, Aftab. If they actually picked personalities, it would be between Ronnie O'Sullivan and Tyson Fury every year.

'Personality' doesn't mean somebody that most people feel roughly 5/10 about, without actually knowing who they are.

[TopDeck113]

The problem with the "Personality" part of the award is that it was coined in the 1950s when few if anyone actually heard a sportsman (or the occasional woman) speak and there was no celebrity culture as such. Consequently, the award was - and therefore should always be - about the sporting achievement.

What has happened in more recent times is that actual achievements have become secondary to the profile on mainstream and social media of both the individual and their chosen sport.  In that context, Earps winning is not a surprise. 

[Flamingo Lane]

I've always thought that SPOTY is principally aimed at people who generally don't take much interest in 'sports'.

[Simon Page]

Why was it on a Tuesday? It's meant to be on the Sunday between proper programmes coming to the end of their latest series and Christmas specials starting. The whole reason to watch it is default.

I hate the modern world with its multi-channel, day-changing wokery.

[usav]

Why was it on a Tuesday? It's meant to be on the Sunday between proper programmes coming to the end of their latest series and Christmas specials starting. The whole reason to watch it is default.

I hate the modern world with its multi-channel, day-changing wokery.

Agreed.  Growing up it always seemed to signal the start of the Christmas season.  That and Mom bringing the Quality Street out.

[Pete3206]

A 2 hour programme on Kenny Dalglish would have been far more interesting. I saw the intro with Pete Tong twiddling some knobs alongside a disinterested orchestra and decided it wasn't for me.

[tomd2103]

SPOTY is just shit and needs to be binned along with the Question of Sport.

Correct, Aftab. If they actually picked personalities, it would be between Ronnie O'Sullivan and Tyson Fury every year.

'Personality' doesn't mean somebody that most people feel roughly 5/10 about, without actually knowing who they are.

Who actually picked the shortlist though?  It was pretty slim pickings in terms of achievements this year, but Harry Kane became England's record goalscorer, Josh Kerr won World Championship gold in 1500m, Ronnie O'Sullivan has broken more records, Leon Edwards has defended his UFC title on a couple of occasions and none of them even got nominated.

Good luck to Mary Earps, but I can't really see what she has achieved in comparison to those above.  Also, I think a lot of sports fans, let alone the general public, would struggle to pick her out in a line up which brings in to question the 'personality' element. 

Stuart Broad had a good series in a drawn Ashes.  The series only really turned when Chris Woakes and Mark Wood came into the side though and if he was nominated because he retired then that's for sentimental reasons.

[Simon Page]

Apparently, these did:

Who was on the judging panel?

The industry panel for this year's BBC Sports Personality of the Year included former England footballer Ellen White, ex-hurdler Colin Jackson, Paralympic swimmer Ellie Simmonds and ex-Scotland rugby international Chris Paterson.

Sports journalists Charlotte Harpur (The Athletic), David Coverdale (Daily Mail) and Rob Maul (The Sun), were also on the 2023 panel, in addition to UK Sport chair Kath Grainger and broadcaster Holly Hamilton.

Representing the BBC were director of sport Barbara Slater, head of TV sport Philip Bernie and Sports Personality of the Year executive producer Gabby Cook.