SJA British Sports Awards 2024: Sportsman, Sportswoman and Team of the Year to be announced

A special celebration of the very best of British sport is coming to Sky Sports on Wednesday.

The winners of this year’s British Sports Awards, an annual event organised by the Sports Journalists’ Association, will be announced throughout the day live on Sky Sports News and Sky Sports’ social and digital platforms.

The top trio of awards are for the Sportsman, Sportswoman and Team of the Year.

The event has a prestigious 75-year history and previous winners include David Beckham, Lewis Hamilton, Jessica Ennis-Hill, Emma Raducanu, Torvill and Dean, and the 2003 Rugby World Cup-winning England team.

The Sports Journalists’ Association (SJA) is the biggest national organisation of its kind in the world, made up of over 900 sports media professionals, including writers, broadcasters, photographers and content creators.

The British Sports Awards, which are sponsored by the National Lottery, date back to 1949.

Along with the three main categories, a series of additional honours are made each year, such as a dedicated prize for para-athletes and an award recognising contributions to equality and inclusion, supported by Sky Sports and Kick It Out.

In 2023, the SJA Sportsman of the Year was England cricketer Stuart Broad; the Sportswoman was Lionesses goalkeeper Mary Earps; and Treble winners Manchester City FC were named Team of the Year.

The 2024 contenders

SJA members have a free vote to select their ‘best of British’ from the sporting successes of the past 12 months.

Young sportswriters from the SJA Academy help to present the case for some of the leading candidates, based on the strength of their achievements. Their picks for this year were:

Sportsman

• Jude Bellingham (football) – won the UEFA Champions League and LaLiga with Real Madrid, and helped England reach the Euro 2024 final
• Alfie Hewett (wheelchair tennis) – claimed the first Wimbledon singles title of his career and won gold and silver medals at the Paris Paralympics
• Luke Littler (darts) – won the Premier League and World Series titles and was runner-up in the World Championship
• Lando Norris (F1) – the McLaren driver was victorious at three Grands Prix and has challenged for the world title
• Tom Pidcock (cycling) – retained his Olympic mountain-biking title in thrilling fashion and won cross-country bronze at the World Championships
• Joe Root (cricket) – became England’s highest Test run-scorer of all time and has now hit more than 50 international centuries
• Alex Yee (triathlon) – won the Olympic individual title and the World Championship series title, both for the first time in his career

Sportswoman

• Lucy Bronze (football) – won a continental Quadruple with Barcelona and is the seventh most-capped Lioness of all time
• Emma Finucane (cycling) – claimed three medals at Paris 2024, the first British woman since 1964 to achieve this at a single summer Olympics
• Jodie Grinham (archery) – won two Paralympic medals and made Games history in competing while pregnant
• Keely Hodgkinson (athletics) – clinched Olympic 800m gold, retained her European title, and ran the sixth fastest time ever over the distance in the Diamond League
• Bryony Page (trampoline gymnastics) – became Olympic champion for the first time in her career, and won individual and synchro titles at the European Championships
• Sarah Storey (cycling) – won her 19th gold medal at the Paralympics and took her overall Games tally to 30 – only three para-athletes have won more

Team

• England men’s football – reached their second consecutive UEFA European Championship final and retained their top-four FIFA World Ranking
• GB Olympics diving – runners-up at the Olympics with five medals behind China’s clean sweep, having won seven medals at the World Championships earlier in 2024
• GB Olympics rowing – achieved their best-ever medal haul at an overseas Olympics, winning eight, including three gold
• INEOS Britannia (sailing) – victory over Italy in the Louis Vuitton Cup secured a historic America’s Cup showdown as Britain’s first challenger in the world’s oldest sporting competition for 60 years
• McLaren F1 – with three Grands Prix to go, the team tops the Constructors’ Championship standings having won five GPs so far
• Wigan Warriors (rugby league) – won a ‘Grand Slam’ quadruple, the second in the club’s history, of Super League, League Leaders’ Shield, Challenge Cup, and World Club Challenge

The members’ votes have been tallied and SJA President Darren Lewis will be on hand in the Sky Sports News studio to reveal the winners.

The other SJA British Sports Awards to be announced on Wednesday are:

• The National Lottery Spirit of Sport Award – recognising a role model who inspires others through dedication and fair play
• The Bill McGowran Trophy – a first-of-its-kind award for disability sport when introduced in 1963, and named after a two-time SJA chair, this category is for high-achieving para-athletes of the year
• The Pat Besford Award – named after the first woman to chair the SJA, this honours the outstanding performance of the year
• The J.L. Manning Award – for services to sport off the field of play. Past winners in this category include athletes, coaches and administrators; it is named after an OBE-winning former SJA chair
• The Peter Wilson Trophy – recognising the breakthrough athletes of the year in both men’s and women’s sports, named after a legendary sportswriter known as ‘The Man They Couldn’t Gag’
• The SJA President’s, SJA Chair’s, and SJA Committee Awards – a trio of prizes specially chosen by the Association
• The Sky Sports | Kick It Out Award – first awarded in 2021, recognising an individual’s contribution to equality and inclusion

Watch interviews with a host of star names as they are announced as SJA British Sports Award winners live on Sky Sports throughout the day on Wednesday November 20.