A total of 18 athletes from athletics have picked up the prestigious award over the years, more than double the number of the next best sport
All eyes will be on BBC Sports Personality of the Year this week (December 17), with Olympic 800m gold medallist Keely Hodgkinson the current favourite to take home the top prize.
The 22-year-old, who became just the third British Olympic female 800m champion after Kelly Holmes (2004) and Ann Packer (1964), is one of six nominees for this year’s award.
Hodgkinson is up against Alex Yee, Luke Littler, Sarah Storey, Jude Bellingham and Joe Root in Salford.
Yee, after becoming Olympic and world champion, will be hoping to become the first ever triathlete – Alistair Brownlee was closest with second in 2016 – to win BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
Keely Hodgkinson (Getty)
If the odds are anything to go by however, then Hodgkinson’s closest challenger for the prize will be teenage darts sensation Luke Litter, who made the World Championship final on debut and backed it up with 10 major trophies.
The last person from athletics to become BBC Sports Personality of the Year was Mo Farah in 2017 and the last female athlete in athletics to claim the award was Holmes in 2004.
Th 18 winners from the sport include: Christopher Chataway (1954), Gordon Pirie (1955), Dorothy Hyman (1963), Mary Rand (1964), David Hemery (1968), Mary Peters (1972), Brendan Foster (1974), Steve Ovett (1978), Seb Coe (1979), Daley Thompson (1982), Steve Cram (1983), Fatima Whitbread (1987), Liz McColgan (1991), Linford Christie (1993), Jonathan Edwards (1995), Paula Radcliffe (2002) and Holmes (2004).
Christopher Chataway [L] (Getty)
Christopher Chataway (1954)
Christopher Chataway’s 1954 was one for the record books. Not only was he a pacemaker for Roger Bannister’s first sub-four-minute mile but Chataway also secured a gold medal over three miles at the then British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver.
His greatest achievement however came in the 5000m. At the European Championships in Bern, Chataway placed second behind the Soviet Union’s Vladimir Kuts, before setting a world record over the distance two weeks later with 13.51.6 at White City.
Kuts would have the last laugh though, running 13:51.2 just 10 days after Chataway clocked his mark in London.
Chataway was the first ever winner of BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
Gordon Pirie (1955)
Gordon Pirie won the award in 1955 after famously beating the legendary Emil Zátopek – a…
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