Sports Personality of the Year LIVE: Winners revealed as Mary Earps and Manchester City claim top prizes
Lionesses goalkeeper Mary Earps is the Sports Personality of the Year as Manchester City swept the other top awards at the prestigious ceremony
Lionesses goalkeeper Mary Earps has been crowned Sports Personality of the Year, topping the public vote ahead of retired England bowler Stuart Broad and world heptathlon champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson to win the prestigious award.
Earps played a vital role as the Lionesses reached their first Women’s World Cup final this summer and won the Golden Glove at the tournament following a series of brilliant performances between the posts - including a penalty save in the Sydney final as Spain beat England 1-0.
The goalkeeper succeeds England teammate Beth Mead to become the second women’s footballer to win the Sports Personality of the Year award in as many years.
Manchester City won Team of the Year, manager Pep Guardiola claimed Coach of the Year and Erling Haaland was named World Sports Star after the club’s historic Treble campaign. Liverpool and Scotland legend Kenny Dalglish received the Lifetime Achievement award and former world javelin champion Fatima Whitbread took the Helen Rollason award.
Follow live updates from the Sports Personality of the Year ceremony in our live blog, below:
Team and Coach of the Year
It’s a double prize for Manchester City - they are named Team of the Year after their treble, with Pep Guardiola named Coach of the Year. Kyle Walker and Pep Guardiola apologise that they are otherwise engaged.
Lifetime Achievement Award
From one footballer to another, and the great Kenny Dalgish, the winner of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Alan Hansen presents the trophy to his great mate as Gerry and the Pacemakers play, the pair sharing a warm embrace. He’s joined on stage by his family and a collection of some of his past players and fellow footballing stars.
“I’m very grateful to the BBC, I will treasure this dearly. There are a lot of people to thank. All we did with football is to try and make people happy, and the best way to make people happy is to get results. If they enjoyed us winning, it is a fraction of the enjoyment we got from the support they gave us. It’s not about taking part, it’s about winning for me, and fortunately we were able to do that.”
World Sport Star of the Year
Quickly on to our next award, and Erling Haaland takes the gong for World Sport Star of the Year from a coterie of sporting superstars.
Haaland thanks those who voted for him after an “incredible” year that saw him fire Manchester City to the treble.
Helen Rollason Award
The Helen Rollason Award goes to...Fatima Whitbread, 1987 BBC Sports Personality of the Year after winning javelin gold. She grew up in a series of children’s homes before being adopted by her coach, Margaret.
Whitbread has since campaigned and fundraised for children in care, and is an ambassador for Action for Children.
“This is a very, very special award. Helen was a friend, and I remember her ringing me and asking if I’d be the first international athlete she could interview. I stand here and I am proud and privileged to win this award, but I stand here and represent the care sector, celebrate our young children, the remarkable resilience they show. The children are our future, so if we can invest in them from an early age, it will help decide what and who they become, and indeed society too.
“I’m calling for fundamental change where our children’s today and tomorrow are safer, happier, and healthier, and that they may well reach their potential one day, too.”
Unsung Hero Award
The 15 shortlisted contenders are assembled on stage, all doing vital, too often unheralded work in community sport.
And the winner is...Desmond Smith, who set up the Sheffield Caribbean Sports Club - a safe haven for young people which supports five cricket teams and eight junior football sides as well as netball and hockey teams.
BBC Sports Personality of the Year - Voting is OPEN
And with our sixth and final contender profiled, voting is now open for the 70th BBC Sports Personality of the Year. Half-an-hour of voting to decide our winner.
Rory McIlroy is a contender for BBC Sports Personality of the Year
McIlroy is unable to join Gary Lineker this season, so Tommy Fleetwood has been collared for a chat.
“Rory is amazing,” Fleetwood says of his Ryder Cup playing partner. “I still feel like he is the best player of our generation, the biggest talent. It’s quite an easy job being next to Rory - he sees shots that not a lot of us can hit. At the Ryder Cup, he just showed what he leader he is.”
Sports Personality of the Year
Into a couple of golfing highlights of 2023, with the Ryder Cup and Rory McIlroy soon in focus, but deserved shine given to Europe’s Solheim Cup heroics in September:
Europe retain Solheim Cup after final-day drama against the USA
Carlota Ciganda was the star in the European side as the home favourite claimed her fourth win from four matches in Spain
Mary Earps is another 2023 SPOTY contender
Runners-up in Sydney were the Lionesses, with rock solid goalkeeper Mary Earps right at the heart of their success. The saver of a penalty in that final, Earps joins Alex Scott on stage.
“Football is a bit of a brutal game so it’s really nice to hear those things,” Earps says of some lovely comments from her teammates and Sarina Wiegman. “It’s been an incredible couple of years and I just feel really grateful to have been given an opportunity to fulfil my wildest dreams.
“Goalkeeping is a massive passion of mine and I’m trying to represent a huge group of people, show it can be cool. What I’ve learnt over the last couple of years is you’ve got to show a lot of resilience in life. We all go through hard times, but I think football is a vehicle and we can all change the world in some way.”
Sports Personality of the Year
And now a look back at what was, in many ways, the centrepiece of the sporting summer, and the Fifa Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, which ended in Spanish triumph.
The two sides of the Women’s World Cup — and the truth about where power still lies
The Women’s World Cup was a transformative tournament that showcased what is possible - but its legacy now relies on the decisions of those who have previously failed to support it, writes Miguel Delaney from Sydney
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