When you consider Jason Kenny, Laura Trott and Chris Froome will need to be included as well that's five cyclists. Having nearly half the shortlist made up of athletes from just one sport would look a bit ridiculous imo.

It is hard to find reasons to drop anyone who has been successful on a bike, same as it is hard to find reasons to drop anyone who has been successful on the track.

It is going to be neigh on impossible to get a shortlist that everyone will be happy with, such is the extremely high standard of potential people deserving to be on it.

As I'm on my phone now I cant respond to this in depth but suffice to say

1. Your claim that I want Paralympians excluded is wrong. Quote where I said it please, not something that attempts to interpret it.
2. My discussion over about merging the events is directly in response to your assertion that the athletes are just as good.
3. It seems to me that its never you missing the point in these discussions. However you are so black and white about things that there is no room for realistic discussion of the issue in hand.

There is plenty of room for discussion with me, I am not black and white in my views, plenty of different shades can be had.

My point about the athletes being just as good, doesn't equate to, right that's it, stop the Paralympians from ever going to the Paralympics ever again.
Far from it, both games should continue, and showcase immense talent from around the globe.

Why dont they create a new award that recognises all the Paralympic winners

Why? They should be eligible for the main award just like any other top sports people.

This backs up everything I said earlier. Nobody can mention a Paralympian without you needing to crow bar in a reference to someone else. Its not like posters don't know they exist.

You talk in black and white terms. You haven't answered any question I've put to you in the interest of furthering discussion and any attempt to do so seems to be an absolute waste of time because you have no interest in the point I am making. You are putting Paralympians on a false pedestal, which means in your world anyone else failing to do so is "putting them down." Can we not just celebrate their achievements without them being claimed to be as good as able bodied counterparts thanks to a freak time in the mens Olympic 1500 metres final?

Despite nobody claiming otherwise.

Utter ignorance of what others say.

because they aren't top sports stars

they are the best within a narrow field of conditionality

there are a number of disabled football leagues in the UK, including leagues for people with visual impairments, deafness and amputees

are the winners of those leagues on par with man utd in terms of level of excellence ?

'Narrow field of conditionality'? In that case, best to disqualify Bolt right now, as his field is limited to 'freaks of nature whose long legs should not move as quickly as they do'.

is that a condition of him taking part ?

he competes against all-comers does he not, there is not specific category that says the olympics 100m is limited to people of a certain height or leg length is there ?

trying to argue that paralympic sports are not subject to a narrow field of conditionality doesn't make alot of sense tbh

https://www.paralympic.org/classification

Hang on, the "Get in line behind Josh" comment was in relation to Josh off of The Last Leg (or The Fast Clegg), who has admitted his man crush on Mr Peacock, so how is that trying to crowbar a reference of the Paralympics into my comments??

It was a lighthearted comment, so why did you take it so seriously?

We will have to disagree here, as I definitely believe that the Paralympians are top athletes, and compete internationally (which is something that to my knowledge the football clubs and leagues you mentioned do not do), and prove themselves to be the best in the world.

they are competing against the best in their field, something you used as a condition for deserving equal praise in an earlier post

so if a deaf football team wins their league, beating all the compeition in their field, does that make them the equals of the EPL winners ?

If a deaf team were to win their league, then they would rightfully be called the best in their own field, just as the Premier League winners would be the best in their own field, would they be equals, probably not, but that should not mean that the deaf team deserve any less praise.

What about your Georgia Hermitage comment?
Why would you assume everyone knows which Josh you are talking about? Why refer to people by first name alone?

Why not answer some of my questions before asking your own ones?

The poster was asking about the top disabled UK teams being on par with teams of equivalent standing such as Manchester United, he wasn't comparing them to the best in the world.

You are completely clueless, honestly, when it comes to understanding context. Its reasonable to ask why if you are always praising Manchester United why you do not give similar praise to their disabled equivalents, or is it only every four years that disabled sport suddenly becomes a point of phenomenally disproportionate interest?

Well Kadeena can be equally classified as an athlete. In 2008 the top 10 then included 4 cyclists - Chris Hoy who won & Nicole Cooke, Bradley Wiggins & Rebecca Romero so a similar situation.

I think you got to have Kadeena Cox and also Dame Sarah Storey on the list

So is that the two Paralympians we should have on the shortlist then

Dear god even by his usual standards Batdude has surpassed himself in the level of being completely out of his depth and not understanding a subject at all. Embarrassing but at least he's got the attention he wants I suppose.

Does anyone feel the Russian hackers could damage any of the sports represented in the short list ?

Highly likely both will be on there as I've previously said. There may be a 3rd, 1 name not seen mentioned is Gordon Reid. If he wins singles & Doubles gold in Rio added to singles & doubles Wimbledon titles could be another strong contender. He also won the singles title at the Australian Open & the French Open Doubles title.

Yep I was thinking this the other day - reidy won Wimbledon men's singles as well but only got £20 grand for his troubles but if he wins gold in Rio then he should be on the short list surely - Wimbledon singles winner + gold medal winner - why wouldn't he be ?

Andy Murray will miss his grandfathers funeral tommorow to play a Davis cup semi final against del Potro - let's hope he wins because that's got bad PR all over it

There could be a late candidate for Overseas Sports Personality of the Year, to challenge Usain Bolt.

Liam Malone, a New Zealand Paralympic sprinter, who has broken Oscar Pistorius' 400m world record and has won two gold medals and a silver medal in Rio also just happens to have a terrific personality. His post race interviews have been brilliant and I'm really looking forward to seeing him on The Last Leg, which he has promised to appear on before the Games are over.