Poll: BBC Sports Personality of the Year

Who should win BBC Sports Personality of the Year?

  • Andy Murray

    Votes: 26 11.3%

  • Bradley Wiggins

    Votes: 112 48.7%

  • Ben Ainslie

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Chris Hoy

    Votes: 14 6.1%

  • David Weir

    Votes: 4 1.7%

  • Ellie Simmonds

    Votes: 2 0.9%

  • Jessica Ennis

    Votes: 34 14.8%

  • Mo Farah

    Votes: 25 10.9%

  • Nicola Adams

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Rory McIlroy

    Votes: 10 4.3%

  • Sarah Storey

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Katherine Grainger

    Votes: 3 1.3%
  • Total voters
    230
As an Englishman I go with Murray. It will be a shame if Wiggins wins it because the Tour de France is very much a team sport and he most certainly had the best team behind him, besides when the closest competition is your team-mate then you know it hasnt exactly been a hard fought victory. Many people reckon if Froome hadnt been on a leash he could have taken it off Wiggins if he wanted. I think the fact that Wiggins will be supporting Froome next year tells the story the way it is. Fair enough, he did a good job with the time-trial but the petulant nature of team GB after lost out in the road race was some of the worst sporting behaviour I have ever seen.

Murray won a slam, a gold, a silver (probably a second gold with a better partner) as well as making the final of Wimbledon. The way he came back from his Wimbledon defeat and demolished Federer in the final of the olympics a few weeks later is what sport is all about. Beating Djokovic over five sets was just epic, especially after having lost in so many finals.
 
pre1twa said:
As an Englishman I go with Murray. It will be a shame if Wiggins wins it because the Tour de France is very much a team sport and he most certainly had the best team behind him, besides when the closest competition is your team-mate then you know it hasnt exactly been a hard fought victory. Many people reckon if Froome hadnt been on a leash he could have taken it off Wiggins if he wanted. I think the fact that Wiggins will be supporting Froome next year tells the story the way it is. Fair enough, he did a good job with the time-trial but the petulant nature of team GB after lost out in the road race was some of the worst sporting behaviour I have ever seen.
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The reason Wiggins is supporting Froome in 2013 is that the TdF for 2013 is more setup for climbers and there is less time trialing, thats the story, they dont do the same route every year!
You make it sound like the Tour is easy too win!
Wiggins also won a gold and also won Paris-Nice, Criterium de Dauphine and Tour de Romandie.
 
I think Murray should get it, been a long time since we (UK) have won anything major in tennis and this year he won a gold and won his first slam, fantastic achievement, especially when you consider the quality of the opposition he regularly faces.

Plus it shut a lot of anti-Murray people up, which has to be a good thing in my book.
 
pre1twa said:
As an Englishman I go with Murray. It will be a shame if Wiggins wins it because the Tour de France is very much a team sport and he most certainly had the best team behind him, besides when the closest competition is your team-mate then you know it hasnt exactly been a hard fought victory. Many people reckon if Froome hadnt been on a leash he could have taken it off Wiggins if he wanted. I think the fact that Wiggins will be supporting Froome next year tells the story the way it is. Fair enough, he did a good job with the time-trial but the petulant nature of team GB after lost out in the road race was some of the worst sporting behaviour I have ever seen.
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While I think Murray would be a worthy winner I don't think that you're being entirely fair to Wiggins here. Many people might believe that Froome could have won it but many people also believe the moon landings were faked i.e. just because it is or is not believed by a lot of people is not a good metric for whether it's correct. It might have been interesting to see a race without team orders but that's a part of the Tour - in much the same way that Wiggins chose not to attack when Cadel Evans suffered 3 punctures in a row on a mountain stage, that's the measure of control and respect he has in the peloton. As InQ says the Tour next year barely has a time trial in it and Wiggins chose to focus on different races so Froome is a natural choice for the type of race it will be in 2013.

The behaviour of Team GB after losing out in the road race wasn't great perhaps but they had a perfectly reasonable point - the other teams who had sprinters in the mould of Cavendish (albeit none in the same class) didn't do the necessary to give their sprinters a chance in a bunch finish. Team GB was the only team who tried to chase down the breakaway and that's unusual because normally there'd be a good few teams wanting to give their dedicated sprinter a chance but they all sat back and didn't bother - maybe it was tactics and they thought GB could do it on their own or maybe it was simply to diminish Cavendish's chances. I don't know and to a certain degree it doesn't matter but what I do know is that the behaviour of the other teams with that type of sprinter was unusual enough to merit comment.

shoot1st said:
I think Murray should get it, been a long time since we (UK) have won anything major in tennis and this year he won a gold and won his first slam, fantastic achievement, especially when you consider the quality of the opposition he regularly faces.

Plus it shut a lot of anti-Murray people up, which has to be a good thing in my book.
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I'm all for shutting up the anti-Murray people but Wiggins did something no Briton has ever done before, not just something that hasn't been done for years, it's entirely unprecedented in British sport. I'm not going to be disappointed if Murray does win, he's had a great year and performed magnificently (as have all on that list) but I think Wiggins has a better claim.
 
semi-pro waster said:
I'm all for shutting up the anti-Murray people but Wiggins did something no Briton has ever done before, not just something that hasn't been done for years, it's entirely unprecedented in British sport. I'm not going to be disappointed if Murray does win, he's had a great year and performed magnificently (as have all on that list) but I think Wiggins has a better claim.
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Just looking at the wiki to get specific dates and we had to wait 99 years for the first Brit to win the Tour but had to wait 104 years for another Brit to win the gold, Murray then was the first to win a slam since 1936. Plus, Murray was the first man ever to win an Olympic gold medal and the US Open in the same year.

Admittedly, I don't have much interest in cycling-type sports so I probably don't have a full appreciation for what Wiggins has done but if we're talking 'years' and 'unprecedented' then Murray has to have a strong case too.

Edit: Just editing to add, remember the opposition that Murray faces too - possibly the 3 best players of all time.
 
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Ceryndrion said:
I think that Ennis probably would be more deserving.. but that's just my opinion..
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Why?

Wiggins won the toughest endurance event in the world as part of winning the 3 most prestigious bike races in France. He won every time trial he entered that year, the majority by crushing margins. He cruised to Olympic gold beating Tony Martin and Fabian Cancellara in the time trial with a colossal performance.

The most impressive thing I saw from him all year though was leading out Cavendish on the Champs Elysee where an entire lead out train (was it Orica Green Edge) burnt up 3 of their guys trying to stay alongside him. :p

He has a personality, he worked for his team mates where appropriate this year, won every major race he entered. Won every time trial he entered, took Olympic gold to temporarily make him our most successful Olympian of all time (although he'd argue silvers\bronzes don't count) and was the first ever Briton to win the Tour De France.

All Ennis did was set a national record. On that basis the men's team pursuit, the men's team sprint and the women's team pursuit all set world records in winning their golds, and Laura Trott won the omnium, under much more pressure from her competitors than Ennis and she didn't even get nominated!
 
Wiggins for me!

Fantastic achievements all round but the endurance for Wiggins to become the first British TDF winner and then to go on and win an Olympic Gold a few weeks later is incredible!

Just my two penneth....

ps. By the love of God though, stop calling this Sports Personality of the Year and start calling it Sportsperson of the Year!!! :confused:
 
Freddie1980 said:
How is Katherine Grainger more deserving then Anna Watkins?
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the only reason she got nominated is because at the last 3 olympics she got silver so stepping up to gold is seen as more of an achievement. :/

i'm more pleased for karina bryant (judo) who won nothing at 3 previous olympics but finally won a bronze at her 4th attempt.

back on topic, has to be wiggo. winning the TDF is such a ridiculous achievement i can't even consider any of the other nominees.

Murf said:
and Laura Trott won the omnium, under much more pressure from her competitors than Ennis and she didn't even get nominated!
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i can't believe she didn't get nominated for winning 2 golds at the age of 20. still, there's a lot more to come from her. could easily become the greatest female GB olympian if she stays fit.
 
Its got to be Wiggins, but as above they need to stop calling it personality - Wiggins doesn't really have an amazing media personality! hes just a talented sportsman that gets on with things.
 
Can't believe Ennis is ahead of Farah in the forum poll. Firstly he won two golds, and secondly world class distance running requires brutal training and has almost zero barriers to entry.
 
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