Sports Personality of the Year 2024 shortlist announced | Other | Sport

The BBC Sports Personality of the Year shortlist for 2024 has now been revealed, with the nation learning who of its sporting heroes it will be decided from for the prestigious end of year gong.

The public has decided its crown jewel of the sporting world for the last seven decades, and now six fresh hopefuls have been put forward for consideration as the festive votes prepare to roll in.

The shortlist contenders, as now confirmed by the BBC, comprise of England cricketer Stuart Broad, jockey Frankie Dettori, England Womens footballer Mary Earps, wheelchair tennis star Alfie Hewett, athletics icon Katarina Johnson-Thompson, and golf ace Rory McIlroy.

It has been a bustling year for all the sporting names involved, with drama and highs and lows both on and off their respective fields of play.

All eyes will be on early favourite Earps, who was a pin-up name as England surged to the final of the Women’s World Cup. The Manchester United star played every minute of their seven matches, conceding only four goals and keeping three clean sheets, which helped her win the World Cup’s Golden Glove award.

She was voted England Women’s Player of the Year for 2022-2023 and finished fifth in the voting for the Ballon d’Or award on the global stage.

The reigning FIFA Best Women’s Goalkeeper was also integral as England won the inaugural Women’s Finalissima with a penalty shoot-out defeat of Brazil in April. In domestic football she claimed the Women’s Super League Golden Glove for the 2022-23 season with Manchester United.

Of the field Earps found herself thrust into the limelight after kit makers Nike initially refused to stock the England goalkeeper jerse for public consumption during the World Cup.

After months of outcry ahead of and throughout the Women’s World Cup over 170,000 people signed a Change.org petition calling on Nike to change its mind about not selling the goalkeeping icon’s England kit.

The sports giant finally make an awkward U-turn on its decision, days after the tournament ended. The kit immediately sold out following its protracted release.

Elsewhere fellow candidate Rory McIlroy has very much been in the thick of the sporting news, as much for his success on the golf course along with his ongoing public war with the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV golf defection group.