The public’s decision to anoint Lewis Hamilton as the BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 2014 has, it is fair to say, received a mixed reaction. Not merely because the Formula One champion brought his dog to Glasgow’s red carpet, but because he beat the overwhelming favourite for the award, Rory McIlroy, convincingly.
Hamilton received 209,920 telephone and online votes, 33.8% of the 620,932 votes cast, eclipsing McIlroy’s 19.9% share by a significant margin of 86,175. This was not a close-run thing, and a result that few predicted.
McIlroy was rated by bookmakers at 2/9 to win the award when the BBC announced its 10-person shortlist at the back end of last month. Hamilton’s odds came in from their original 3/1 price but, even still, the margin of his victory is an indication of how many underestimated the esteem in which his second drivers’ title was held by the public.
McIlroy was graceful in defeat, even if many of the golfing fraternity were perplexed at the decision. Ian Poulter tweeted: “Obsolutely [sic] ridiculous that @McIlroyRory has not won Sports Personality 2014. Huge respect to @LewisHamilton but come on.” He added: “@BBCSPOTY has turned into a complete joke. It’s such a great shame. Huge congrats to @LewisHamilton, but he had 1 person to beat all year.”
Joey Barton wrote: “McIlroy, wins multiple golf Majors and Ryder Cup. Froch, boxing World champion. In fact every other nominee was more deserving the [sic] Hamilton.”
McIlroy played some sublime golf on the way to a first Open title at Hoylake in July, made it back-to-back majors with the US PGA at Valhalla, and was part of the European Ryder Cup-winning team in September, during which he demolished his good friend Rickie Fowler in the singles on the final day. Hamilton’s second title, though, ensured he became the first F1 winner of the Sports Personality since Damon Hill in 1996.
Perhaps it was simply that the public perceived Hamilton’s achievements as superior to McIlroy’s – 86,000 votes suggest that was certainly the case. Yet there may have been other factors at play.
McIlroy’s majestic success at Hoylake was five months ago. In contrast, Hamilton secured his second title in fine style only three weeks ago in Abu Dhabi, a performance of impressive mental fortitude to stay ahead of his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg. Fresh in the public’s memory, the timing of these respective victories may have proved crucial to the voting.
It is also worth noting that McIlroy’s other successes – his win in the Kentucky dusk at Valhalla and the European victory at Gleneagles, were not shown on free-to-air TV. Both were shown on Sky – as was his year-ending success in European Tour’s season climax the Race to Dubai – while a significant number of Hamilton’s races, including the finale at Abu Dhabi, were broadcast by Sky and the BBC.
Hamilton certainly received ample support before the Spoty vote and perhaps the result should not have been so surprising. His official Facebook page has 2.9m likes compared to McIlroy’s 708,000, while he has 2.5m followers on Twitter to the Ulsterman’s 2.2m. In the digital age of social media power, this could also have proved key. The hashtag £VOTE4LH44 was used numerous times online, as were pictures of Hamilton draped in a Union Flag.
It means that golf has not had a Spoty winner since Sir Nick Faldo prevailed in 1989.
