Sports Personality of the Year 2024: Start time, contenders and how to watch

Sign up to our free sport newsletter for all the latest news on everything from cycling to boxing Sign up to our free sport email for all the latest news Sign up to our free sport email for all the latest news SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. This year, a range of athletes are in the running, including darts breakthrough star Luke Littler, England football icon Jude Bellingham and Olympic gold medallists Keely Hodgkinson and Alex Yee. open image in gallery Keely Hodgkinson won the women’s 800m gold at Paris 2024 Luke Littler is another contender, with the now-17 year old enjoying a breakout year in the darts world after becoming the youngest ever player to reach the PDC World Darts Championship final at the age of 16. The remaining four athletes on the list are Olympic triathlon gold medallist Alex Yee, Paralympic cycling champion Dame Sarah Storey, cricket star Joe Root and England men’s football and Real Madrid midfielder Jude Bellingham. In addition, there is an award for the World Sport Star, which is simply given to the non-British sports star who has achieved the most in that year – this was awarded to Erling Haaland in 2023. open image in gallery Haaland won the award off the back of a treble-winning season with Manchester City The Unsung Hero Award is given to people in the local community to reward ‘unseen’ work in grassroots sports, with nominations made by the public.