It is not just skill and excitement that keep us entertained, tantrums and tanking play their part in sport’s rich pageantIt’s the antihero antidote to the BBC’s saccharine Sports Personality of the Year awards, a selection of our favourite cheats, heels, villains and sore losers from 2021. Continue reading...
The ceremony’s usual bombast was dialled down a little but odd moments were reassuringly present and correctAs the BBC’s small, Covid-friendly Sports Personality of the Year award ceremony drew to a predictable conclusion, Lewis Hamilton – appearing via video link from a position in front of a lavishly decorated Christmas tree in Monaco – held up the replica trophy he had been thoughtfully equipped with in case of victory and thanked the people of Britain for voting for him. “All the frontline workers, all the children of the world, please try to stay positive at this difficult time,” he said. “Please, everyone out there, go out and follow your dreams.”Unless you’re in a tier 4 area, of course, in which...
Coming 14 years after Flintoff in 2005, Stokes’s coronation felt like a vindication of something. But what, exactly?No sooner had the polls closed than the recriminations could begin. Horror and dismay at Katarina Johnson‑Thompson HQ. Rumours that Dina Asher-Smith would announce her resignation as early as Monday morning. Sources in the Lewis Hamilton campaign briefing that their candidate’s tax policy had gone down disastrously on the doorstep. Back in the studio, meanwhile, white-haired psephologists feverishly picked over the historic implications of the vote, and in particular the crumbling of Alun Wyn Jones’s “red wall”.Well, maybe not. And yet, as the ticker tape tumbled in Aberdeen, as Ben Stokes clutched the Sports Personality of the Year trophy in his meaty hands,...
Ben Stokes produced two match-winning innings but Dina Asher-Smith made history and Lewis Hamilton got title No 6Stride by stride, second by second, Dina Asher-Smith had a 2019 for the ages. To win one world athletics medal would have been staggering enough. To become the first Briton to leave with three from the same championships was a monumental statement of intent. Best of all was her 200m gold in 21.88sec, a time so fast it smashed her national record and made her the first British woman to win a global sprint title. Further silvers in the 100m and 4x100m highlighted the potential for more glory at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. No wonder Sebastian Coe has predicted she will be the...
Raheem Sterling, Lewis Hamilton and Ben Stokes have used social media to fight back against a hostile pressLet’s begin with Bob Nudd. Now, this may seem a strange place to start an article about the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards when the show has come up with its strongest shortlist since the 2012 Olympics and, in all honesty, even Bob himself seemed a bit surprised when I called him up this past week to talk about it. “You can probably guess why I’m calling,” I started. “No,” he stopped. “Is it something to do with the election?” Not the election Bob, but the other big vote. The one you should have won, back in 1991 when Nudd, four‑times...