Regular readers will know that this column holds no truck with the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, a spangly festival of pukey montages, twee sentimentality and bad shirts. Alas, despite my yearly protestations, they continue to hold it. So who should win?
The shortlist is, in terms of sporting achievement, very strong. It is dominated by Olympic and Paralympic gold medallists but also finds space for Britain’s finest tennis player and our most gifted golfer for generations.
Does it represent a real balance of sporting achievement this year? Perhaps not quite — otherwise Graeme Swann or Alastair Cook would be on there as the world’s best Test bowler and second-best Test batsman in 2012. So too one of Chelsea’s Champions League winners, although, erm, ah, er, not John Terry. But, well, fie and fiddlesticks. This was an Olympic year.
The winner, probably, should be Bradley Wiggins. A Tour de France and Olympic gold double is as good as it gets — at least the equal of Andy Murray’s US Open and Olympic achievement.
Also, ‘Wiggo’ benefits from having a nickname, amusing ginger sideburns and a love of both mod music and the demon drink. This all fulfils that nebulous criteria known as ‘personality’ which is essential to the prize, even if it was once awarded to Damon Hill.
If not Wiggo, I quite like the idea of it going to David Weir, a hero almost beyond measure. Weir also has a nickname, ‘The Weir-Wolf’, which my friend Rick Edwards claims to have coined. It would please him no end to see the
Weir-Wolf anointed, even if it is in the stupidest contest of the year.
