BBC Sports Personality

[Madbadteacher]

No, but demographically that's the age-group most likely to vote and vote often, just like with all the britain's got no fucking talent shows........talent don't win, young-person appeal wins!

[Goldie03]

Wiggins seems to have it in the bag according to all the bookies.

 

Think I'll vote for Murray!

 

 

I voted for him 

[glasgow sheep]

Other than being good to look at I don't see how Ennis deserves to be 2nd ahead of Murray, Farah or even McIlroy and Hoy

[Kowalski]

Other than being good to look at I don't see how Ennis deserves to be 2nd ahead of Murray, Farah or even McIlroy and Hoy

 

This.  Disappointed for Farah, thought he should have been in the top 3.

 

Lennox Lewis guilty of the worst award presentation ever! 

 

        1. Bradley Wiggins 492,064 (30.25%)

        2. Jessica Ennis 372,765 (22.92%)

        3. Andy Murray 230,444 (14.17%)

        4. Mo Farah 131,327 (8.07%)

        5. David Weir 114,633 (7.05%)

        6. Ellie Simmonds 102,894 (6.33%)

        7. Sir Chris Hoy 42,961 (2.64%)

        8. Nicola Adams 35,560 (2.19%)

        9. Ben Ainslie 35,373 (2.17%)

        10. Rory McIlroy 29,729 (1.83%)

        11. Katherine Grainger 28,626 (1.76%)

        12. Sarah Storey 10,342 (0.64%)

[BigAl]

Lewis didn't award Murray

Andy just ended up taking it.

Easiest appearance fee he'll have ever earned

[CtS]

Last years winner had 169,000 votes, look at the amount of people who voted this year. 

[dave_min]

Last years winner had 169,000 votes, look at the amount of people who voted this year. 

 

1,626,718 

[Goldie03]

Other than being good to look at I don't see how Ennis deserves to be 2nd ahead of Murray, Farah or even McIlroy and Hoy

 

I totally agree - she only won one bloody gold, I thought Farrah would definitely have got more votes than Ennis

[maverick sheep]

well, Ennis was the poster girl for the whole build up so she had the appropriate personality, plus she's been in all the twat mags recently cos she's getting married an that. Then there's the fact that she can pass as white, and doesn't pray to allah when she wins medals, so racist britain can like her.

 

ennis benefited from the fact the achievements of the female athletes inspired wimmins sport-wise, and moved em to vote, but they weren't going to vote for the other women, cos they had nae chance of winning. (like any men actually vote for bollocks like that anyhow)

[jmo]

Bit surprised Murray didn't win, but then again I've always preferred tennis to cycling. Didn't realise that many people in the UK cared about the Tour De France.

[Tyrant]

Bit surprised Murray didn't win, but then again I've always preferred tennis to cycling. Didn't realise that many people in the UK cared about the Tour De France.

 

 

Everyone prefers Tennis to Cycling. Tennis is a game that can be enjoyed by spectators. Cycling is a method of transport. If Murray was English he'd have gotten 50% of the vote. No one cares about cycling but they do care about being on the "Someone from Engerlund has done something good" bandwagon.

 

I also think the voting was dodgy. Took me about 10 attempts to finally get anything other than an engaged tone. 

[manc_don]

Quite enjoyed it today, agreed with most of the winners for a change.  There was no-one more deserving than Andy Murray this year. Tremendous, hopefully his form continues into next year. 

[rocket_scientist]

Murray deserved winner.

 

Biggest highlight was Izzard in stilettos, red lipstick and a woman's necklace.

 

What a tube. Attention-seeking bordering on pathology.

[Kowalski]

Full results - Andy Murray polled 361,446 votes followed by: Kevin Sinfield 278,353, Jessica Ennis-Hill 79,898, Tyson Fury 72,330, Lewis Hamilton 48,379, Chris Froome 39,007, Mo Farah 31,311, Max Whitlock 25,925, Greg Rutherford 23,492, Lizzie Armitstead 22,356, Adam Peaty 13,738, Lucy Bronze 13,236.

 

Great for Murray. He seems to have won round the most of the nation, although the comments about his lack of personality are just nonsense.  He certainly has to be considered Scotland's greatest sportsman.

[baggy89]

Holy shit that Ellie Downie. She's been hitting those protein shakes HARD...

[rocket_scientist]

Holy shit that Ellie Downie. She's been hitting those protein shakes HARD...

 

And just to make sure the world knows about it, she chose a strapless dress.

 

She should have consulted someone other than Tyson Fury or a Wahhabist Muslim as her costume designer.

[Tyrant]

Full results - Andy Murray polled 361,446 votes followed by: Kevin Sinfield 278,353, Jessica Ennis-Hill 79,898, Tyson Fury 72,330, Lewis Hamilton 48,379, Chris Froome 39,007, Mo Farah 31,311, Max Whitlock 25,925, Greg Rutherford 23,492, Lizzie Armitstead 22,356, Adam Peaty 13,738, Lucy Bronze 13,236.

 

Great for Murray. He seems to have won round the most of the nation, although the comments about his lack of personality are just nonsense.   He certainly has to be considered Scotland's greatest sportsman.

 

 

I da ken like. I ended up getting drawn into an argument about this last night (which isn't like me!) There are still some colossal fuds out there that are absolutely gutted that Andy isn't English. Not to mention the Scottish fuds that don't like him for whatever reason. You don't have to like the guy to acknowledge what you correctly pointed out - that he is the greatest sportsman in the history of Scotland and (probably Britain too) by a million miles.

[rocket_scientist]

His exceptional sporting achievements is not in dispute. He's become the second best in the world.

 

The only debate concerns his personality.

 

When they made that sketch years ago - "the dog died" - it was good observational satire. It's the same issue that he himself is aware of and made reference to last night with the article and his joke about it being unfair to Worthing.

 

He comes across in interviews as sombre, as whiney, as overly serious. This has been in evidence from day one. We can't blame him for this. It's just the way he comes across. He's had to be so singularly focused and disciplined to get to nearly-the-top that he's different from almost everyone else, certainly from 99.999% of the population.

 

Even though I didn't see the article, any journo who still focuses on his interview persona more than his ability and achievements will be a sad fuck. He might be English and still resentful of Murray's excellent ABE sentiments back then, failing to understand Murray's patriotism and offended that he came out as one of the 45% last year. Every true Scotsman is ABE and pro independence so to vote 55% No was a sad indictment on our nation, thick fucking non-thinking idiots that they were.

 

Murray isn't popular for a number of reasons, not one of which is his tennis ability. It can go too far the other way, those who love his skill so much that they can't understand why others don't like him.

[Tyrant]

He has more personality in his 2nd serve than Greg Rusedski and Tim Henman put together. I was a fan of and watched both those players in their day too. I didn't dislike them because they seemed boring as fuck. But Andy is anything but. But although he's getting really good at dealing with mics shoved in his face it's still clear he doesn't enjoy that aspect of his fame. So unless you're a Murray fan you're not going to see his personality other than the occasional TV interview. I'm actually glad he doesn't pretend to enjoy it either. There's enough fake shite about.

 

And the stuff about him being pro-indy was never going to win him more fans (although I admit it meant a lot to me) but he doesn't care about that either. And I respect him more for it. And even though he's pro-indy he's played out his skin when representing the UK in the DC Cup and the Olympics. Even sang God Save The Queen ffs (which near killed me to see) so I am still guilty of getting wound up with the pricks that are itching for him to fail. 

 

Having said all that the sports personality of the year award isn't awarded based on the sports person's personality. But many are too thick understand that a word can have 2 meanings. In this case the intended definition is, as provided by my mate Google:

 

personality

p??s??nal?ti/Submit

noun

1.

the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual's distinctive character.

"she had a sunny personality that was very engaging"

synonyms: character, nature, disposition, temperament, make-up, persona, psyche, identity

"her cheerful and vibrant personality"

2.

a celebrity or famous person.

"an official opening by a famous personality"

synonyms: celebrity, VIP, star, superstar, celebutante, name, famous name, household name, big name, somebody, leading light, notable, personage, luminary, notability, worthy;

 

 

 

[rocket_scientist]

I don't think we're disagreeing on anything here but just to add some observations which hopefully make sense: -

 

"Unless you're a Murray fan you're not going to see his personality..."

 

Putting aside the definition of who is and who is not a fan, it's not going to be possible to discern enough about his actual persona to be conclusive about him, unless you actually know the man. For sure there are certain aspects of personality that can be picked up from his performances e.g. drive, determination etc. and certain aspects of personality that can be suggested from interviews e.g. uncomfortable or not natural when the cameras/microphones are shoved on him, resulting in his tendency towards coming across a potentially drole, humourless etc. but if you don't know him personally like I don't know him personally, we're only guessing. At the end of the day, who cares what his personality is like in his private life. That's his business. Our only interest should be what he does on the court.

 

Being pro-indy was ALWAYS going to work against him with the vast majority of the Engerlish but this is where he gains my admiration, for having the balls to be honest and put his personal thoughts above any consideration of PR and image. Good on the cunt, I say, whether I agreed with him on this point (which I most certainly do) or not. I'm not sure how you can say that "he doesn't care about that either". He cared enough to tweet it on the eve of the referendum. Maybe you've read/heard something that I haven't, that wasn't a retraction of what was an obvious PR blunder.

 

Getting wound up by others "itching for him to fail" is silly. I'm not even sure who these people are although I don't doubt that there's a few who do. Who fucking cares what others think? I'm pretty sure he doesn't. He even made a joke about it last night in his acceptance speech, which I took as a deliberate PR line to "burst the bubble", to minimise the negativity that has always followed him, mostly due to perceived moroseness in years of interviews and the ABE etc., which only Scots truly understand anyway.

 

He's a great athlete who's talents has given him great riches. He comes across as a determined, fantastically successful young man who's discipline and work ethic has got him very close to the best in the world. I hope he hits no. 1 one day and adds to his majors so that he may be considered as a true great of the game. With a family to look forward to next year, I wouldn't blame him if he has already peaked and has achieved his majority already. Unlike you as a self-confessed fan, I wouldn't necessarily ever want to break bread with him but I admire his achievements.

 

[Tyrant]

No we're not disagreeing. And I didn't intend to imply that so apologies if I did. And I should have been clearer about the pro-indy thing. I meant he didn't care about his stance on independence not winning him more fans. Not that he didn't care about independence.

 

 

His honesty is something that I've always admired. He's pulled no punches when the truth was required. Despite knowing it'll make him enemies. His comments over the last decade about the LTA for example. But there are other things that I've seen whilst following his career that leave me in little doubt that I'd like him personally. His charity work and his love of animals for example. The fact that he's not a hun or a tim. He's a top tennis player and a top man. Thoroughly deserves his award. 

 

[rocket_scientist]

But there are other things that I've seen whilst following his career that leave me in little doubt that I'd like him personally. His charity work and his love of animals for example. The fact that he's not a hun or a tim. He's a top tennis player and a top man. Thoroughly deserves his award. 

 

Whilst I have agreed and said already that he deserves his award, you raise yet more issues for debate.

 

I have no doubt that he is a good bloke and charitable in that he would give his time selflessly to good causes but I don't know what particular "charity work" he's been engaged in. Unfortunately most charities are funded by fools and run by people without charity in their hearts.

 

Your "love of animals" line astonishes me. Is someone who loves animals a "top man"? I'm not even sure how you established that Murray has a discernible love of animals? Perhaps he said it in a multi-question profile type interview and he's hardly going to say no, I hate animals.

 

Most people wouldn't say that they "love animals" and even fewer would say they didn't like them but what can we possibly correlate between animal-appreciation (or not) and aspects of personality? In fact, it is known that some persons with strong love of animals harbour defective capacities to love humans. I'm not talking about those who go the full hog and engage in bestiality here but the love of animals can often substitute the interrelationship difficulties that they face in life.

 

The myriad possibilities of why that should be are infinite, from simple inability to relate to other humans due to emotional damage suffered in childhood and infancy, a lack of trust having been betrayed once too often, experiencing love only conditionally from humans and therefore appreciating the unconditional love from animals etc. etc. It may not even be a relate-to-humans issue. The psychopath might "love animals" because they can control them in whatever way they wish, another damaged human might love the power to control their relationship with an animal because they were spectacularly unsuccessful in harbouring any sense of power in their human relations, the possibilities as I say, are limitless.

 

That he "loves animals" I'm not disputing, as I don't know this, I don't know him personally and am not therefore qualified to comment. Seeking a correlation between the fact that he does and anything about him as a person is what I can't fathom.

[Tyrant]

Well I didn't really say or even imply that he's a top man just because he loves animals. I said that was something that made me believe that I'd like him personally. And you're way over-thinking the reasoning. I think the reason is irrelevant. Fact is that not enough people acknowledge or respect other human and non-human being's right to an existence. Andy does. And Andy's tweets about his own pets as well as the charity work he's done for WWF lead me to this conclusion. Andy also does work and fundraising for Unicef. He donated £50 out of his own pocket for every ace he hit this season.

 

Your point about charities being run by uncharitable people is a fair one but a separate discussion.

 

[rocket_scientist]

It's not possible to "over-think". It is possible to take something too personally however.

 

Just as the nature of charities is a separate discussion, the correlation between people "loving animals" and anything that this says about their personalities is also a completely separate debate, one that I personally find more interesting than who won a human-voted award and how well deserved it was or otherwise, the human condition being of far greater fascination for me personally.

 

And that's what good debates do, spawn other subjects of interest and discussion.

 

Another potential subject of interest arising from your comments might be the nature of fandom, keeping up with them on social media, forming opinions about their characters rather than just their areas of expertise etc. but it's not one I that I really want go into, especially with you and at this time and on this thread in particular, as I suspect that we would fall out over it.

[Tyrant]

It's not possible to "over-think". It is possible to take something too personally however.

 

Just as the nature of charities is a separate discussion, the correlation between people "loving animals" and anything that this says about their personalities is also a completely separate debate, one that I personally find more interesting than who won a human-voted award and how well deserved it was or otherwise, the human condition being of far greater fascination for me personally.

 

Again I never said it did. It's something that I'd have in common with him. That's all.