Elise Christie – Speed skater who won the 1,000m, 1500m and overall titles at the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships in Rotterdam, and won bronze in the 3,000m.
Sir Mo Farah – Nominated for the fifth time, the multiple gold-medal winning middle-distance runner won 5,000m silver at the worlds, just missing out on a fifth major championships distance double in a row after taking the 10,000m.
Chris Froome – The Kenyan-born cyclist who represents Great Britain was just the third rider to win the Tour de France/Vuelta e Espana double in the same year, and the first to do so since the Spanish race was switched to follow the French one in 1995.
Lewis Hamilton – Formula 1 champion who secured his fourth world title at the Mexican Grand Prix in October. The achievement made him Britain’s most successful F1 driver in history. He won SPOTY in 2014.
Anthony Joshua – Heavyweight boxer AJ stopped Wladimir Klitschko in front of 90,000 fans at Wembley Stadium in April to win the WBA and IBF world titles. He then defended against Carlos Takam in Cardiff in October.
Harry Kane – Finished the Premier League’s top scorer for the second successive season in May having scored 29 goals. The Tottenham and England striker scored six hat-tricks in 2017 and was also the only English player to be shortilisted for the prestigious Ballon d’Or. He is likely to captain his country in next year’s World Cup.
Johanna Konta – Australian-born tennis player who became the first British woman to reach the Wimbledon singles semi-finals since Virginia Wade in 1978. Climbed to a best-ever fourth in the world rankings at one point, having been 150th at the start of 2015, but struggled in the second half of the season.
Jonnie Peacock – Two-times Paralympic champion who overcame cramp in the warm-up to snatch victory in the T44 100m final at the World Para-athletics Championships in London, his second successive world title.
Adam Peaty – Swimmer who won two world titles and broke his own world record twice in one day at the World Aquatic Championships in Hungary in July. The Olympic champion retained his 50m and 100m breaststroke titles in Budapest.
Jonathan Rea – Motorbike rider who became the first rider to secure three successive World Superbike titles, triumphing with five of the season’s 26 races remaining. Went on to break Colin Edwards’ 15-year record for the number of points scored in a season.
Anya Shrubsole – Cricketer who was named player of the match as England secured a dramatic victory over India to win the Women’s Cricket World Cup in July. The Somerset bowler took five wickets in 19 balls as she claimed 6-46, the best bowling figures in a World Cup final.
Bianka Walkden – Taekwondo fighter who won a fourth heavyweight gold medal in a row at the World Championships in June and later enjoyed Grand Prix victories in London, Moscow and Morocco.
Sports Personality of The Year 2017 Best Odds
Anthony Joshua 2/7, Lewis Hamilton 6/1, Chris Froome 11/1, Mo Farah 33/1, Harry Kane and Jonathan Rea 40/1, Adam Peaty 100/1, Anya Shrubsole and Jonnie Peacock 150/1, Bianka Walkden and Elise Christie 250/1, Johanna Konta 300/1
Who deserves to win the BBC Sports Personality of The Year and who actually gets to stand on the podium on December 17th in Liverpool are probably two entirely different things.
I suppose you can’t argue with Anthony Joshua as favourite. A British world heavyweight boxing champion, and an undefeated one at that, are a rare thing. Watford-born AJ showed tremendous courage to get off the floor and defeat Wladimir Klitschko and, managed correctly, could be at the top of his particular tree for many years. However, he’s a best 2/7 to win the SPOTY vote and that’s just not a feasible bet.
Revelations about his private jet won’t have done Lewis Hamilton any favours. I know there is more to driving an F1 car that just pointing it in the right direction, but when your car goes that bit quicker than everybody else’s and doesn’t break down as often, you should really win. Chris Froome’s effort in winning the Tour de France and the Vuelta e Espana was a much more notable achievement but cycling does suffer from bad PR. However, the 11/1 with Boylesports appeals. If SPOTY was French and Froome was a Frenchman, he’d have already won the award several times over.
No one dominates his discipline as much as Adam Peaty. Unfortunately, swimming isn’t a mainstream (pardon the pun) sport so the man, and woman, in the street won’t know of his exploits. That 100/1 would be way to big in terms of achievement if the message could get out.
