Lewis Hamilton Is Bbc Sports Personality

[ChillDoubt]

for 2014, beating Rory McIlroy into 2nd place(which apparently came as quite a shock to some).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/sports-personality/30456847

Very well deserved and a very magnanimous victory speech.
To be fair, he fought through some dreadful bad luck and no little 'interference' from his team mate before shining through with superior talent and determination. True Brit spirit.

A special mention too for the Helen Rollason Award winners, the GB Athletes from the Invictus Games. Prince Harry presented the award and I have to say I had a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye.
Well done to all concerned, it was a great showcase of Great British sporting talent that shone bright throughout the year.

[ichkeria]

Although I voted for Rory McIlroy I think I really would have loved to see Jo pavey win
But the whole thing is a farce really. There were 10 candidates of whom 2 maybe 3 had a chance of winning. And having them in a closed shortlist just rammed it home that they had no chance. Bring back the old days when you could vote for anyone you liked ... :-)

[jd_1984]

Thought Rory might nudge it as Hamilton has already won the F1 championship. It was the probably the manner in which he won

[douglas9401]

Maybe voters were worried that if Mr McIlroy got wind that he was to be the winner he might change his mind about turning up and back out at the last minute.

[janbee]

A well deserved award to Sir Chris Hoy. Well done. What a great tally of medals and awards he has and a thoroughly nice bloke too.

[Ellipsis]

If The Open had been in November and the USPGA in December then maybe McIlroy would have won.

Oh, and maybe if he hadn't dumped his fiancée for his career - possibly a good "sports" decision but hardly a good "personality" decision ...

[janzman]

If Lewis Hamilton had been driving for Sauber for instance do you really think he'd have won the Drivers Championship...of course not his Mercedes car did that for him. Rory won his Majors and Ryder Cup with 14 clubs in his bag no better or worse than any other players clubs, a very much better personal performance and for that reason he should have won, but unfortunately SPOTY doesn't work that way.

[Bazile]

You could say that with respect to other sports -

Football
Cricket
Rugby
Rowing

etc

[douglas9401]

",,of course not his Mercedes car did that for him."

Didn't do it for Nico Rosberg or any other Mercedes powered cars though.

[ChillDoubt]

The claim that because Hamilton won the Championship only weeks ago meant he got more votes than McIlroy(whose achievements were in the summer) are a moot point IMHO.
Why? Because the public are made fully aware of all the candidates achievements for that year prior to voting opening and are hence given a reminder.
After that it's up to them.

He won by some margin too:

http://sports.ndtv.com/formula-1/news/234579-lewis-hamilton-wins-bbc-sports-personality-of-the-year-2014

From link:

The 29-year-old Mercedes driver won his second world title this season by taking 11 races. He won 34 percent of the vote Sunday, followed by Northern Irish golfer Rory McIlroy with 20 percent and athlete Jo Pavey third with 16 percent, reports Xinhua.

[joeluke]

'I'm pleased Hamilton won and not some personality free golfer.'

Yes, the award was won by a personality-free F1 driver

And he really needs to get rid of those girly diamond earrings too

[ichkeria]

I don't think it is fair to say that McIlroy dumped his fiancée 'for his career' especially as she is also a top sporting champion
It isn't really for us to moralise when we don't have all the facts
As for the 'personality' thing luckily the award seems to go on sporting achievement generally. I am a little fed up of personality cult and at least in the field of sport one can point at merit and hard achievement rather than celebrity

[Ellipsis]

> It isn't really for us to moralise when we don't have all the facts

It's not a question of moralising, simply looking for reasons why McIlroy didn't win this personality content.

[douglas9401]

It's not a personality contest, the passage of time has rendered 'personality' inappropriate.
It's the same thing for 'celebrity' when describing any nonentity who's been photographed or been on TV for almost any reason.
The event needs to be renamed Sports Person Of The Year if only to stop the same old drivel about he/she/it not having a personality.

[ichkeria]

I don't if McIlroy calling off his wedding had a lot to do with it. Not that anyone can tell.

[Ellipsis]

> It's not a personality contest, the passage of time has rendered 'personality' inappropriate ... The event needs to be renamed Sports Person Of The Year

It's not a sports contest. It's a vote by the general public. That's what makes it a personality contest, whether you call it "personality", "person" or "celebrity". The appropriate meaning of personality is the second meaning below:

personality
noun
1.
the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual's distinctive character.
2.
a celebrity or famous person.

> The event needs to be renamed Sports Person Of The Year if only to stop the same old drivel about he/she/it not having a personality.

That is drivel, because it's the wrong meaning of personality. A personality in that sense is not a person, it's a set of characteristics.

[ichkeria]

No Douglas is correct: it's a vote on sporting achievement, not 'personality' and that is how it should be. I don't care for Lewis Hamilton but it's daft saying he or whoever shouldn't win because he hasn't got a personality. People will largely vote for the person they think has the biggest achievement. Doubtless if there was some candidate who had a particularly appealing public personality then they would probably have an advantage but I am not sure it applied to any of the 10. And in any case we don't really know these people personally

[Ellipsis]

> it's a vote on sporting achievement, not 'personality' and that is how it should be.

Really? Thanks for putting us straight on that.

In competitions where trained judges vote to determine the winner - such as gymnastics, boxing or diving - there is often controversy over their choices. But you seem to think that the untrained British public is capable of determining and ranking sporting achievement across sports as diverse as golf, motor racing, showjumping and athletics, and coming up with an objective ranking of "achievement" without reference to the popularity of the sportsperson or the sport.

The clue is in the name "Sports Personality Of The Year". It's a popularity contest, that's all.

For what it's worth, I think winning two golf Majors back-to-back is a greater sporting achievement than winning the F1 world championship. There's more competition, less help from the equipment and it's a much rarer achievement. But, when the votes were cast, Hamilton was the more popular sporting personality.

[craft1948]

I actually think that dumping the gorgeous Caroline (he was punching above his weight there) did affect the voting...