BBC SPOTY: why no women?

Love it or hate it, the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award is the only accolade which is given across a range of sporting disciplines – the culmination of the (often fruitless) exertions of the most talented sports stars Britain has to offer.

But this year, no women have been nominated for the prestigious award. The members of the selection committee have been roundly criticised for selecting a shortlist of ten sportsmen, ignoring the exploits of Britain’s female athletes. World champions including swimmer Rebecca Adlington, Chrissie Wellington and Keri-Anne Payne have all been ignored and have voiced their discontent that the likes of Andrew Strauss and Andy Murray have been chosen ahead of them.

However, the list of nominess very accurately reflects the criterion given by the BBC regarding who should be selected. According to the terms and conditions, the award is given to ‘the sportsman or woman whose actions have most captured the public’s imagination in 2011.’ In other words, the scale of achievement is less important than the fame and popularity they gain in the process, or how inspiring their story may be.

Taking this condition literally, the clear winner of the ten nominees, for me, has to be Darren Clarke. Few stories have been as inspirational as that of the 43-year-old, who has moved on from the devastating death of his wife to lead Europe to Ryder Cup glory – sinking the winning putt – and this year coped best in the horrific weather at Royal St George’s to win the Open Championship, dedicating the victory to his wife. To top it all off, this made him the oldest debut major winner in almost half a century.

Rightly or wrongly, no women have done that this year to the same extent that the nominees have. This is not because they lack the personality or the sob-story.

Indeed, Sarah Stevenson, the world taekwondo champion, has had a year to rival Clarke’s situation. With both her parents hospitalised, Stevenson bravely decided to enter the world championships just weeks later, fighting for them and ultimately coming out on top. They were there to greet her and congratulate her on her return to these shores, before both sadly lost their respective battles. Stevenson’s father died in July and her mother just last month.

Despite this remarkable triumph in the face of such adversity, only three of the 27 publications on the selection committee (The Times, The Sunday Times, and The Guardian) included Sarah Stevenson in their list.

So why have women been overlooked?

Without the publicity offered to men’s sports, it is virtually impossible for women to ‘capture the public’s imagination’ unless, like 2004 winner Kelly Holmes, they have brought home a medal or two from the athletics at the Olympic Games.

The current selection procedure is biased, not only towards men, but to those who play more popular sports. For instance, Murray, while perpetually falling at the semi-finals of major tournaments and remaining outside the world’s top two, fully warrants a place as he is a household name who dominates public thought for at least a month a year. Also, Ryan Giggs won the award two years ago, despite very modest achievements in 2009. Meanwhile, Alistair Brownlee, world champion in the gruelling triathlon, receives little recognition for his performance.

It would, however, be too simplistic to reel off a list of British world champions as nominees. The Sports Personality award would become farcical if the voters had only heard of half of those on the shortlist. Also, that would leave no place for those involved in team sports. For instance, if Gareth Bale scored a hattrick in every World Cup qualifying game to lead Wales to Brazil in 2014 (which would, of course, be their first World Cup since 1958), he would not be a world champion, but would surely merit inclusion.

There is no simple solution, as an award which covers all sporting disciplines and both genders presents many controversial issues. In this sense, the criterion of capturing the public’s imagination is effective, in that it helps us avoid the impossibility of quantifying the accomplishments of our sportsmen and women.

It may at least reduce some of the criticism to give two separate awards – one for Sportsman of the Year and one for Sportswoman of the Year.

I appreciate this does not eradicate all the problems associated with the award. But, in the interests of gender equality, it presents both men and women with the same possibility of success.

In a year such as this, the lack of women on the shortlist has been condemned. But at what point does the inclusion of sportswomen over more well-known and popular male athletes simply descend into tokenism?

At least if there were separate gendered awards, equality can be assured. Not only this, but it could provide women’s sport with much-needed publicity, were the BBC to cover this category as extensively as the male award on the live show.

It would allow us to be aware of just how successful Britain actually are at sport – even if it doesn’t always seem that way as we struggle in the mainstream disciplines – and to recognise a greater number of our athletes.

After all, people like Sarah Stevenson deserve to be a household name. She’s the world taekwondo champion, by the way.