Votes for women - but not in the SPOTY
Dec0220114:34 p.m.
We all know that women’s sport is not given fair coverage, but it still came with a degree of surprise that NO women were named among the 10 nominees for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. It was as if Yorkie, McCoys, Nuts Magazine and some male hair dye company had contrived the contest to be “just for men” when the shortlist was announced a few days ago.
So the all-male shortlist has ruffled a few feathers and left people calling for an overhaul of how the nominees are chosen. Where were the likes of Chrissie Wellington, the four-time ironman triathlon champion in the list or open course swimmer Kerri Anne Keri-Anne Payne, the first British athlete to qualify for London 2012? Well, not on the list was the simple answer.
The 27 media organizations deemed that the following were most worthy of a place on the shortlist:
Mark Cavendish
Alastair Cook
Mo Farah
Amir Khan
Andy Murray
Darren Clarke
Luke Donald
Dai Greene
Rory McIlroy
Andrew Strauss
So that’s one cyclist, two cricketers, two athletes, three golfers, one boxer and one tennis player – and no partridge in a pear tree. Not difficult to see that the lack of footballers was due to a crap World Cup performance, so that has left this male dominated lot to fight it out.
Bookies favourite is Mark Cavendish, who has the knack of timing those sprint finishes to perfection, but don’t be surprised if there’s a kick in the home straight from Mo Farah, who is clearly the best distance runner we’ve had since Coe, Cram and Ovett… and Paula Radcliffe.
Of course, with the Olympics looming, 2012’s nominees could be a completely different picture. See success from Team GB’s women athletes and it will be them dominating the nominations, not the (potentially) underachieving men.
It’s a sad fact that even when women are nominated, when it comes to the public vote they are not always backed. Christine Ohuruogu came in as World Champ and mustered a tiny percentage of the public vote – so this lack of attention given to women’s sports by the media is seemingly matched by the public. Other than Zara Phillips, whose Royal connection obviously helped her cause, it’s always difficult for a woman to bag the SPOTY prize.
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Comments (2)
Rob_Barber 'SPOTY I reckon should always be based on achievement, I've been racking my brains over this, and I can't think of any stand out achievements this year from our female athletes. Is that due to lack of achievement or lack of coverage? I don't know. What I do know though, is the list of 10 they have come up with here is too long! There are some names deservedly on there, Cavendish, Cook, Farrah, McIlroy and a couple of others, but not everyone on there is justified.' added 2nd Dec 2011
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marcphillips ''crap World Cup performance'? Guess that did for the rugby boys as well?!! Cavendish or Farah as shortlist surely?' added 2nd Dec 2011
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