SPOTY

[Taybank]

Worth a read. http://www.chrissiewellington.org/blog/spoty-a-window-of-opportunity/

[andypat]

You are right - its a very well balanced look at the situation taking account of the relevance of women's sport and also with a nod to minority sport and paralympic athletes.

To be honest I couldnt have told you who Chrissie Wellington was before all this blew up. And I suspect that if the actual definition of SPOTY is the athlete who "best captures the public imagination" over the year then I guess that makes it all the harder for people in minority sports or any sport, including some women's sports, who receive less tv coverage, to claim to have captured "the public's imagination" whatever that is.

I dont think there's any excuse for not having any female athletes represented but if the award is that subjective then its probably no surprise. However I think if anything this kerfuffle will have brought home to the BBC that there is a degree of responsibility that comes with this event now and they need to shake up their processses.

I always enjoy a good debate about sport and equality - its interesting to hear the different perspectives on sport where professional athletes are involved. It

[Ravinous]

I can't see why there is not a separate Male and a Female Personality OTY award - then we can celebrate 'the top 10' both male and female athletes/performances of the year in one nice BBC programme. Alternate which comes first Male/Female each year in the programme.

[Kitch]

I think that misses the point Chrissie Wellington is trying to make.

Fundamentally she is trying to highlight that the media is heavily prejudiced and biased towards mainstream, male, able bodied sport.
and that it is barely possible for minority / female / diasbled sporting champions to "capture the public imagination" whilst this remains the case.

Her point is that their achievements can be every bit as hard won, impressive and inspiring as the mainstream and that they can and should be recognised as such on an equal basis.
As soon as you create categories then you imply that the achievement is not of equal value.
She is saying that though, for example, women (in the main) can not compete on an equal basis with men, their achievements can and should be viewed as equal.
Same for disabled, same for minority.

That they are not are is a result of prejudice and media bias.
SHe is challenging the BBC (and I suppose everyone else) to address this.

Her argument is very relevant to Orienteering as a minority sport with no media profile.

If you doubt the impact that a high profile athlete can have on a sport then come to the Meadows on a Tuesday evening. You will see as many girls as guys (if not more girls) training with the Uni Hare and Hounds. 15 years ago there were far far fewer girls involved than guys, the numbers have built over the last 10years. I'll bet my bottom dollar that at the root of virtually every one of those girls' continued involvement and enthusiasm for running is Paul Radcliffe.

[Becks]

Kitch, that's a very appropriate typo

[graeme]

their achievements can be every bit as hard won, impressive and inspiring as the mainstream and that they can and should be recognised as such on an equal basis.

Hard won and even impressive maybe, but inspiring? Try this: name the woman who achieved the women's equivalent of each man in that sport. I can't think of one.
Why stop at minority / disabled ? Why not elderly? coloured? overweight? myopic? professorial?

Well, its possible to be inspiring outside mainstream male sports, but you have to be exceptional. Like Radcliffe. Phil Taylor. Bob Nudd. Zara Phillips (oh, hang on..)

What I haven't seen in all this hubbub is who, exactly, this hard-done-to woman is
this year. And who the undeserving man is. Sadly, it will sometimes turn out that there aren't any plausible female/black/asian/disabled/elderly/overweight/myopic/professorial winners. Given a moment's unworthy thought the shortlisters would surely have included a woman: that they didn't reflects extremely well on them.

And if Paula Radcliffe wins her gold medal next year, they'll have a shortlist of one.

[Kitch]

hmmm, undeserving man...
Ohhhh
I dunno -
maybe the 4th best men's tennis player in the world
again.

Wellington list several female World Champions

[andypat]

I always enjoy a good debate about sport and equality

I knew you wouldnt let me down Graeme!

Why stop at minority / disabled ? Why not elderly? coloured? overweight? myopic? professorial?

[orienteeringUK]

Wellington list several female World Champions

Liam Tancock, World Swimming Champion (We did get 3 golds, not just the 2 female ones)
Danny Hart, World Downhill MTB Champion
John Higgins, World Snooker Champion
Mens 4, Lightweight 2 and Lightweight Sculls 2 boats, World Rowing Champions
Thomas Geechan and Paul Foster, both Individual World Bowls Champions

[Safety]

The SPOTY shortlist this year is particularly male biased, but as usual it is some of the people who do appear who annoy me rather than those who don't. I would have loved to see Alistair Brownlee, Helens Jenkins and Chrissie Wellington in there, all have had exceptional years in their Triathlon Distances. But Amir Khan, apparently he WON a fight. Murray taking his usual, were supposed to be good at Tennis so must have someone in there position. For once I don't have too much of an issue with one of the token (male) cricket player who has to be in there, but as a TEAM sport I think that accolade should be awarded through the TEAM catagory. There are apparently 3 golf players in there only 1 of which I have ever heard of. So it boils down to 3 worthy candidates: Dai, who pulled his world champs perfomance out of the bag; Mo, who seems to have been in such form that he could have won any race he entered; and Cav, who yet again has had 1 of, if not the best year of his life. The BBC are conveniently hiding behind the 'panel of sports editors' argument, but it just isn't good enough. This year we have had numerous rowers winning world champs, 3 Swimmers won the world champs, Triathletes winning pretty much everything they could win, and yet none of these people even get a look in. That does not even consider all of the other sports that the mainstream consider 'not important'. If the BBC is willing to put its name to this award, then it seriously needs to consider the process by which we end up with this shortlist. Equally they need to consider if this award is really the kind of thing that should be decided by a stupid phone in vote, when the majority of people who vote will only have heard of a couple of the people on the list. At least this year we cannot have the 2009 farce of one R. Giggs, limping around a soccer pitch for the 800th time and than picking up the award ahead of 9 other candidates each one individually more deserving than him, just because people who have no interest in sports recognise him from the back page of the tabloids. However, if one A. Strauss wins, I may regret having said that.

[andy]

The young sports personality list is all female (including paralympian)... so I guess that's biased too

People are reading too much into this... plenty of women win (and will win) the SPOTY

[awk]

People are reading too much into this

Really? Which is why such highly respected sporting publications such as 'Zoo' and 'Nuts' were included in the list of magazines that were asked to contribute to the poll. Equally, it includes some highly regionally biased publications (the Manchester Evening News included YaYa Toure, Patrick Vieira, Dimitar Berbatov, Paul Scholes and Glenn Chapple in its list for goodness' sake).

There has long been a massive bias against women's sport in this country in the media, with IIRC barely 3% coverage of women only sport in the sports pages. This is a blatant reflection of that bias. There is, admittedly, massive bias against quite a lot of sports too in favour of a very limited range covered, and some very old-fashioned ideas (not least at the BBC) at what constitutes the sort of sport people want to watch. To be honest, it's one of the reasons I haven't watched SPOTY in years, although I'll be voting for Mark Cavendish all the way this year. Personally, I agree with Ravinous in having separate Male and Female winners.

Anyway, congratulations to Sarah Stevenson, multiple World Champion in Taekwando. who won the Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year against red hot competition, someone who has shown she is the best at what she does (unlike some of the others in the SPOTY shortlist, and huge swathes of nominations), and a phenomenal personality too.

[andypat]

I think it wouldnt do any harm to have a rule that team sportspeople wo are members of a team that has done exceptionally should only be eligible for the team of the year, unless they as an individual have acheived a particular milestone. This would stop the likes of cricket captains getting in by virtue of captaining the team alone, or possibly Ryan Giggses. It would also increase the interest in the team of the year award.

I also think there should be a rule that each individual sport should only have one nominee. After all only one of them can win so let the panel decide deserves the nomination if there are, for example, three golfers, who have acheived similar things.

Hopefully this would widen the scope sufficiently to acheive the aim of more minority sports and more female nominees.

[graeme]

the token (male) cricket player who has to be in there, but as a TEAM sport I think that accolade should be awarded through the TEAM catagory.
.. Cav, who yet again has had 1 of, if not the best year of his life.

Alastair Cook's achievement owes much less to the efforts of the rest of his team than Mark Cavendish's.

Like kitch, I'd put that token Scot at bottom of my list. But 4th in the world is still ahead of "one of the 40 swimming world champions, again'. This year, there is no missing woman.

[frog]

I hate it as a largely meaningless sporting award. Any award where the public votes is never really going to recognise achievement, just who is mainstream. I also hate the word "personality" in the title. Why can't it be for the sporting "achievement" of the year. Let's celebrate miserable, obsessional boring athletes, not flamboyant extroverts.