• Best of British: who will win?
Athletes, who have won 17 of the 61 awards, are also represented by Mo Farah, double world champion at 5,000m and 10,000m for the second time, and Greg Rutherford, who added world long jump gold to the Olympic, European and Commonwealth titles he already holds.
Three cyclists have won in the past seven years and two more are on this year’s shortlist – Lizzie Armitstead the world road race champion – and Chris Froome, Tour de France winner for a second time. Armitstead is only the fourth British woman to win the rainbow jersey and the sixth Briton overall while Froome, who missed out on a top-three place in 2013 when he won the 100th Tour de France – has become Britain’s greatest ever competitor in the sport’s greatest race.
No gymnast has ever won Sports Personality of the Year but Max Whitlock – Britain’s first ever male gold medal-winner at the world championships – is recognised for winning in the pommel horse at Glasgow and for his silvers on the floor and with the team. Rugby League has never had a player in the top three placings and Kevin Sinfield, the Leeds Rhinos stand-off who ended his extraordinary league career by winning the Challenge Cup and Super League Grand Final, would be a worthy pioneer.
Swimmers have fared better than legaue players and Adam Peaty would become the sport’s first winner for 52 years if his gold medal in the 100m breaststroke at the world championships and remarkable feat in becoming the first person ever to break 58sec for the event attracts enough support from the public.
Despite the omissions of male footballers, the game has not been entirely overlooked. Lucy Bronze, who scored England’s winning goal in the round of 16 at the World Cup and one that turned out to be the winner in the quarter-final victory over hosts Canada has been nominated from the squad that won the bronze medal.
The dozen names on the shortlist were agreed by panel members including Dame Mary Peters, Maggie Alphonsi, Baroness Grey-Thompson, Jermaine Jenas, Hazel Irvine, Chair of the Youth Sports Trust Baroness Campbell and the heads of sport at The Sun, The Times and The Guardian/Observer as well as BBC Sports department executives.
Voting takes place by telephone or online on the night of the award which will be broadcast live from Belfast on Sunday, 20 December.