British paralympic dressage rider Sophie Christiansen is one of the 16 sports stars on the shortlist for the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year award. Christiansen joins Olympic show jumping champion Nick Skelton as equestrian athletes on the SPOTY list.
No Paralympian has ever won the main award before but with eight Paralympic gold medals to her name, including the fabulous three from Rio, Sophie is a more than worthy contender. She’s up against some tough competition with the 16-strong shortlist boasting 13 contenders with Olympic Gold medals.
The contenders:
- Nicola Adams – boxing
- Gareth Bale – football
- Alistair Brownlee –triathlon
- Sophie Christiansen – equestrian
- Kadeena Cox – athletics/cycling
- Mo Farah – athletics
- Jason Kenny – cycling
- Laura Kenny – cycling
- Andy Murray – tennis
- Adam Peaty – swimming
- Kate Richardson Walsh – hockey
- Nick Skelton – equestrian
- Dame Sarah Storey – cycling
- Jamie Vardy – football
- Max Whitlock – gymnastics
- Danny Willett – golf
Equestrians have a good record in the contest with previous winners including Zara Phillips and AP McCoy whilst our own golden girl Charlotte Dujardin finished a brilliant fourth in 2014. This year the Equestrian world has two representatives, with show jumper Nick Skelton also listed after his incredible performance with Big Star in Rio resulting in a historic Individual Gold.
Our 2016 dressage nominee Sophie’s amazing season included not only winning three Paralympic gold medals but also an incredible year-round performance having not finished lower than second place in any FEI event she contested. She’s definitely deserved of being only the second dressage rider in SPOTY history to be nominated for the prestigious award
The sparkling awards ceremony takes place this year at the Genting Arena in Birmingham on Sunday 18 December and will be broadcast live on BBC One, with coverage also on Radio 5 live and the BBC Sport website. The result on the night is purely down to the public vote.
Photo © Jon Stroud
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