BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2022: what is the prize money for SPOTY award? Trophy & nominees explained

We are only one day away from finding out who has won the 2022 BBCSports Personality of the Year awards as the ceremony returns once again to MediaCity in Salford. The annual awards ceremony encapsulates and celebrates the best of British Sport from the year and will include the Women’s Euros 2022 success, the Beijing Winter Olympics, the T20 cricket World Cup triumph as well as England’s journey to the quarter-finals of the Qatar World Cup.

Emma Raducanu was the 2021 recipient of the award following her tremendous victory at the US Open in September last year and other previous winners of the trophy have included fellow tennis star Andy Murray; cyclists Mark Cavendish, Bradley Wiggins and Gyraint Thomas and Formula 1 legend Lewis Hamilton.

This year, the nominees are footballer Beth Mead, gymnast Jessica Gadirova, cricketer Ben Stokes, curling’s Eve Muirhead, snooker star Ronnie O’Sullivan and athlete Jake Wightman. Here is what the winner of the award is set to receive...

When is BBC SPOTY 2022?

The programme is set to take place tomorrow evening, Wednesday 21 December, with a start time of 6.45pm GMT. The awards will be available to watch on BBC One and BBC iPlayer and will see Gabby Logan and Gary Lineker return to their presenting roles along with Clare Balding and Alex Scott.

What is the prize for BBC SPOTY?

The winner will take home the highly coveted trophy, an iconic prize which is a silver four-turret lents camera. It was first created in the 1950s for the inaugural winner of the event, Christopher Chataway.

The programme was first created by Paul Fox in 1954 while he was editor of the sports magazine show SportsView. Approximately 14,500 votes were cast and Chataway beat fellow athlete Roger Bannister to win the first BBC Sportsview’s Personality of the Year Award.

There is no prize money awarded for the winner of the trophy. Each new winner has their name engraved on individual shields attached to a plinth underneath the camera on the trophy and the original trophy is still used for the ceremony.

Who are the BBC SPOTY nominees?

Following the success this summer, which brought England their first piece of silverware since 1966, Euros 2022 golden boot and player of the tournament winner Beth Mead is nominated and the frontrunner to win. The Arsenal striker scored six goals and contributed five assists to help the Lionesses lift the trophy at Wembley in July.

She is joined by Great British Winter Olympic icon Eve Muirhead who, after four Games, finally led the British women’s team to gold earlier this year at the Beijing Games in February. She is now also Scotland’s most decorated curling player.

Jessica Gadirova, the 18-year-old gymnast, is up for both SPOTY and Young SPOTY following her triumphs at the World and European Championships. Gadirova won three medals at the Worlds, including floor exercise gold.

England’s red-ball cricket captain and 2019 SPOTY winner Ben Stokes is up for the award. He helped England across the line in a tense T20 World Cup final fixture against Pakistan and has completely revitalised the Test team, leading them to a historic 3-0 series win over Pakistan. Stokes has now captained England through nine out of 10 Test wins.

Snooker’s Ronnie O’Sullivan became the oldest world champion in Crucible history at the age of 46 earlier this year. He secured his seventh World Championship following an intense battle against Judd Trump in the final and equalled Stephen Hendry’s modern era record of seven world titles.

The final nomination is Jake Wightman, 28, who won gold at the 1500 World Championships becoming the first person to do so in 39 years.