I think the Lance effect is a red herring, in as much as Team Sky (and hence Wiggo) have deliberately defined themselves in opposition to doping.

So the public sees Wiggo as the solution, not the problem.

But cyclists are a well organised and militant sort of bunch

It’ll have to be done slightly more subtly than in the past. I thought this was quite interesting

This is on the wiki for the SPOTY:-

In 1991 Bob Nudd received the most votes—at more than 100,000—following a campaign in the Angling Times. However the BBC deemed this to be against the rules and “discarded all the ballots cast on forms printed in the Angling Times”

The Olympics defined 2012 and the Paralympics (for the first time?) placed paralympic sport on a level playing field with Olympic sport. So surely the most appropriate results would be:

SPOTYs (joint): Sarah Story, David Weir and Ellie Simmonds
Team of the Year: The 2012 Games Makers
Coach of the Year: Lord Coe

What does Trottie need to do to get on the list having won 2 Olympic golds, 2 world championships, 3 world cups, and broken 6 world records on the trot (haha).

Maybe swear at a few journalists, and grow some unusual facial hair?

My vote will be with Wiggo.

All are deserving winners this year I think that the paralympian nominees deserve it more than any other, but this won’t be reflected in the vote. Farah will win

I think that the paralympian nominees deserve it more than any other

The sympathy vote? Or is there some other justification?

It will be interesting to see where the honours go this year and if they will be equitable with previous honours.

They’ve already said the rules have changed – at least in part I think because of them realising just how many knighthoods they’d be handing out to some very young people otherwise. I don’t think anybody will be made a knight or a dame due to sporting achievement this year (though I’m happy to be proved wrong).

Why doesn’t SPOTY adopt the same stupid approach as primary school sports day’s: nobody “wins” or “loses”, they’re all winners!

When did you last go to a primary school sports day? Definitely winners and losers at ours, though if they adopted the same system for SPOTY, the nominees would be put into teams and competing in a relay obstacle race against each other. Actually, that’s not such a bad idea…