COMMENT

It is that time of the year again, when the great and good of sport come together to bathe in the excellence of their achievements over the last year.

The name of this annual celebration is Sports Personality of the Year, and it is this award that all in sport strive to win. But of late, the meaning of the word ‘personality’ seems to have been forgotten by the voting public, and instead it appears that ‘sports person of the year’ is awarded. While not an abomination of an award, it does miss the point of the coveted camera-shaped trophy: to celebrate not only achievement but also a sports person who adds something to their sport, someone who is fun and exciting, someone who you wish to watch receiving an award. Although Sir Chris Hoy and Joe Calzaghe, the previous two winners, are both phenomenal sportsmen and do have more of a personality than other recipients – Greg Rusedski, Lennox Lewis or Zara Phillips perhaps – they still somewhat pale in comparison to 1982 champion Daley Thompson, Sports Personality of the Century Muhammad Ali or more recently International Sports Personality of the year 2008 Usain Bolt. So is there anyone this year on the 13th of December in Sheffield that will at last deserve the award for both sporting excellence and actually being in possession of a personality? Tom Daley, Ryan Giggs and Beth Tweddle have neither reached the pinnacle of their respective sports nor do they have the qualities that constitute a personality. Mark Cavendish does, but being the best sprint cyclist Britain has ever had, yet not the best in the world right now, does not quite make him deserving of winning, and despite moving forwards in his career, Andy Murray is simply a corpse that can play tennis. The only nominees who have both achievement and personality are Jenson Button, Jessica Ennis and David Haye. But they should not win because there is one who deserves it more; the one man to have reached the top of his sport and the only person on the list who has the personality to give any respectability back to the award is Phillips Idowu. After finally winning a World Championship gold in the triple jump, he has at least delivered on the promise he has shown for so long, and he is also one of the most interesting and exciting people in sport. Idowu truly has a personality; he is one of the few people that you would actually pay attention to at the end of an interview. That is why he deserves to win, not only because of what he has achieved but because it would help to revive this award that is suffering a possibly terminal identity crisis.

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