Yeah no definitely will get it I think.

The ability to say them words in every interview is a winner .

Great to see Sarah Storey get the record as our most successful ever athlete at either the Olympics or Paralympic games!

She surely has to be on the list now!

Had to be in the US Open final to have a shout yet he is still big favourite at the bookies?

I think Andy and Mo's achievements this season are roughly on a par with each other. Either of them would be a deserved winner but Andy seems more popular with the public and that's what makes him a shorter price imo.

I'm sure you understood what I meant ! If Andy Murray made the us open final then HE would have been the stand out choice ! It's obvious to most that was a major factor and that is what I meant , the fact he didn't make the final just brings the chasing pack in the betting more interesting and Andy Murray and popular are not words IDE put together , you know there has been spoty years when he's polled very low as well as high and I'll be honest I don't see Andy Murray as mr popular , I do see Andy Murray as the only weapon in the BBC sport schedule , you only need to see last nights press conference to see we are not dealing with a MR personality ,even tennis fans must recognise that , great tennis player and world class tennis player but MR personality ? I see none -sorry

He does have that marmite type appeal but so do Farah and Wiggins for example.

Surely anyone with as many golds as Farah would have won by now - but do some see him as not really British!?

I think they will put in somebody like Weir or Storey but the BBC will get accused of just being PC.

The word personality is redundant in the title of the award. Basically it is sports star of the year. A good selection of former winners ( McCoy, Wiggins, Hamilton, Giggs, Radcliffe etc. ) are hardly known for their off the field/track antics are they ?

Murray is still fav and I personally still think he will win it. If he does then well done to him, he is a sporting phenomenon. I will be voting for Mo but if Murray wins I do not have a single issue with it

Well Lewis certainly had a lot of attention in a way with the media but maybe that is because he had a famous girl friend whilst we all know about what Giggs was up to now..



Adding to your list the likes of Redgrave/Owen and Davis have won it too!

Hardly great personalities but in their prime great sportsmen.

And TBH I'd rather they were just good sports people than living the life to the full but being hopeless! (might be the trouble with some England footballers..)

And that's going to be the part were we relise as a nation we are racist OR NOT ? I feel and many will also feel regardless if mo wins or not , it will show a bigger picture of Great Britain , if he wins good for mo he deserves it and if he does not ,then we reflect badly because we would look out of touch , I'm sure the BBC recognise this fact just in the same way they worried about Tyson furry winning ??? ( by the way I believe those votes on him might have been massaged !! We all think it ) I'm more inclined to vote for someone who has done his country proud and it's overdue ,how could we not recognise our country's greatest track & field athlete - he gets my vote

I have said all along I will be voting for Mo and I have also said that if Murray wins I will be pleased for him and accept it. He did win Wimbledon after all. He has done very well and in an event that is a real pearl in the sporting crown. To suggest it is down to racism if Mo doesn't win is, quite frankly, childish on your part and also incredibly ignorant. You want Mo to win. I want Mo to win. The difference though is, I can accept it if he doesn't, you don't seem able to. That says more about you than the voting public I am afraid.

It's just obvious that if he's not won already THEN WHY ? What other possible reason could a athlete who has been unbeatable in 5 years not won Darren ? You have a different reason why ,other than the obvious ?

And let's just say Andy Murray does win , and the following year a non Olympic year no international football and Andy Murray wins a grand slam or 2 ? He gets it again ? the worse possible scenario , the award would be stupid , surely it would be a disaster for the whole spoty award , the best outcome for sports personality 2016 is Murray not winning , for the good of the award for the good of British sport .

So are you going to tell the British public to vote for Mo Farah then

NO - the British public should vote a Olympian ,someone who trained 4 years for the Olympics , unlike Justin rose who if didn't win gold , had another tournament lined up or Murray had us open lined up - if Nicola Adams didn't win gold then she didn't have a fight lined up at ceasers palace ! It was 4 years graft for that moment and it's not just Nicola , there are other medal winners who are deserving , it has to be a Olympian winner who trained solely for the olympics , that's what IDE like to see

The problem is that all of those people are in 'minority' sports and I think the vote will be spread. It's a really difficult one with Murray and Hamilton winning before and Farah seeming unpopular.

If you think Mo Farah only races once every 4 years you are very much mistaken.

So you think people won't vote for Mo because he's black and Muslim yet they are so racist they will vote for a Scot ?

Wimbledon is huge, considerably bigger than long distance running.

I will reiterate for the last time. I'm voting Mo, I want him to win. But if he doesn't if is because somebody else has won the public over more. Nothing to do with race, colour or creed. Sure SOME people will not vote for Mo because of that, probably one or two on here, but they are the very small ignorant minority

Why just an Olympian, what about a Paralympian?

They work just as hard, if not harder considering their respective disabilities, to win their medals.

Yes sorry I do mean Olympian / paralympian

This is what I was getting at a couple of pages back.

Is the thread now going to be disrupted by this being continually pointed out?

Paralympians are largely an irrelevance when it comes to elite level sport. Not doubting their hard work and commitment for a second but they, as a group, were lauded in 2012 and then completely forgotten about for 4 years.

Whilst we can applaud what they do in most cases we have absolutely no context to any of their achievements. To say nothing of the need of some to be seem to applaud it in a slightly patronising way.

By what being pointed out?

By the fact that there are some tremendous athletes that deserve to be on the list?

What is wrong with saying that Sarah Storey should be on the list, or other Paralympians, do you not believe that they are top level athletes?

What they do and how they train is just as unbelievable as any Olympic star, perhaps more considering their respective impairments.

I couldn't imagine trying to swim with no arms, or cycle with their impairments for example, so they fully deserve the praise that they get.

Who is applauding them.in a slightly patronising way?

What they do with all manner of impairments is incredible in my mind.
To be able to get to a very high standard even with a disability to my mind just shows their dedication and sheer bloody mindedness, and they deserve recognition for achieving the results that they are currently doing.

The beauty of SPOTY is that there are so many different reasons to vote for all the nominees. Do you go down the route of voting for the nominee with the greatest success in the biggest sports or do you vote for winners in minority sports and hope that they have a chance to be more noticed in the general public.

My vote will be for Nick Skelton. Having met him a few times it sort of swings my vote towards him and i am a fan of Show Jumping and feel that it needs further recognition. As i have said that is the great thing about the show, you can vote for who you want and justify that.

I have never suggested it doesn't take hard work and dedication and isn't an achievement but that's different being Sports Personality of the Year. They did their thing four years ago and they were forgotten until now when people do their right-on "aren't they amazing" routine again, as illustrated by the plight of David Weir who was apparently a national hero 4 years ago (an a genuinely impressive athlete) but earned next to nothing and was cast aside and left having to crawl around in a house with stairs.

People applaud it at the time but that's really it. There is no sustained interest because much past the "aren't they amazing" its isn't top level sport in the vast majority of cases.

I don't think that's entirely true. Channel 4 have shown several other disability sport events since 2012 and Sarah Storey, Hannah Cockcroft and Ellie Simmonds have reasonably high profiles. Plus the winter paralympics now also gets coverage.

Even in the Olympics not every gold medalist becomes famous, now many people can remember the names of the sailors, canoeists or the men's eight?

It is just as much top level sport as their Olympic counterparts, they face challengers just like their Olympic counterparts.

The training and preparation for the games is just as intense (if not more considering all of the various types of disabilities that there are).

As for being forgotten about, I distinctly remember watching Sarah Storey's hour record attempt, and the German long jumper trying to qualify for the Olympics, so they are not totally forgotten about.

How is their hard work and dedication any less worthy of being up for this award, and possibly even winning it?

It would be fantastic if a Paralympic athlete were to be victorious, and it would most certainly be very well deserved for such hard work and dedication against the odds.