Full list of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award 2022 nominees - from Beth Mead to Ben Stokes & more

The BBC are preparing to host the 68th annual Sports Personality of the Year award ceremony this evening. The event will be broadcast live on BBC One from 6:45pm.

The ceremony brings together the very best athletes from across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to celebrate their fantastic achievements in sport throughout 2022. This year has been exceptional for sport - including the Women’s Euros, The Open Championship and the Winter Olympics in Beijing. The men’s World Cup in Qatar most recently came to a close at the weekend, however England were knocked out by France in the quarter-finals, while Wales failed to make it past the group stage.

Ahead of today’s ceremony, we take a look in detail at each of the six nominees for this year’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year award...

Nominees

Jessica Gadirova

After taking gold in the all-around at the British Championships as well as contributing to Great Britain’s second-place finish at the European Championships, Gadirova was named in the team to compete at the 2022 World Championships in Liverpool.

The 18-year-old helped Team GB earn a silver medal before also winning an individual gold medal in the floor exercise final, becoming the youngest British gymnast to be named a World champion. Her impressive performances later earned her the title of Sunday Times Young Sportswoman of the Year.

Beth Mead

After scoring eleven goals and providing eight assists in the Women’s Super League last season, Beth Mead went on to enjoy an even better summer with the national team. The 27-year-old earned the Golden Boot award and was named the player of the tournament as she picked up the most goals and the most assists at the 2022 Euros tournament.

Scoring goals against Austria, Norway (3), Northern Ireland and Sweden, Mead helped lead the Lionesses to their first major tournament victory as they beat Germany 2-1 at Wembley Stadium. The final brought Mead’s 2021-22 campaign to an end as she broke Jimmy Greaves’ record to score 20 goals and assist another 17 in 19 matches for England.

Eve Muirhead

Muirhead started off the year brilliantly as she was selected as skip for the Women’s curling team at the 2022 Winter Olympics, where she led the team to a 10-3 win over Japan to win her first ever gold Olympic medal. Two months later she went onto win the curling mixed doubles world championship alongside fellow Scot Bobby Lammie. After winning eleven gold, six silver and four bronze in her career, the 32-year-old announced her retirement in August.

Ronnie O’Sullivan

O’Sullivan claimed his seventh World Championship title with a 18-13 final win over Judd Trump in May. The 46-year-old became the oldest world champion in Crucible history, eclipsing Ray Reardon, who won his sixth title aged 45 in 1978. O’Sullivan also beat Marco Fu 6-4 to claim the Hong Kong Masters, as well as beating Judd Trump once again to win the Champion of Champions.

Ben Stokes

Two years after lifting his first Sports Personality of the Year award, Stokes has been nominated again after England’s T20 World Cup win. The 31-year-old’s England side claimed nine victories from 10 games over New Zealand, India, South Africa and Pakistan and captaining England to victory with a record run rate in their first Test in Pakistan for 17 years.

Jake Wightman

Wightman claimed a gold medal as he ran a superb 1500m run at the World Championships in a personal best time of 3:29:23 - beating Olympic champion and European record holder Jakob Ingebrigtsen. The 28-year-old became the first Brit to hold the world title since Steve Cram in 1983 and ended a streak of seven consecutive golds for Kenya-born runners.

Wightman went on to take bronze at the Commonwealth Games and a silver for the 800m at the European Championships, before breaking Tom McKean’s Scottish 800m record of 1:44:95 in September. The Nottingham-born athlete was named the Sports Journalists’ Association Sportsman of the Year.